People Before Profit blog

Police arrest 15 at immigration reform action in Florida

Fri, 01 Nov 2013 14:50:00 +0000

ORLANDO, Fla.--Immigrants, their brothers and sisters in labor and other progressive forces converged here on Oct. 29 for a protest demanding a path to citizenship for America's 11 million undocumented immigrants and an end to the deportations that have torn apart tens of thousands of immigrant families. The action culminated in the arrest of 15 activists for nonviolently blocking an intersection.

The protestors want GOP House Speaker John Boehner and tea party-backed Republican Reps. Tom Rooney, Dennis Ross and Daniel Webster, all of Florida, to "clear the path" and allow a vote before year's end on comprehensive immigration reform. The protestors also want President Obama to halt the deportations of undocumented immigrants, which have soared to almost 400,000 annually during his administration.

"We are here to say that there are no more excuses--we need immigration reform and we need a stop to the separation of our families," Maria Rodriguez, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, told the 300 participants.

"I'm here because I think it's a human rights issue," said Harriet Heywood, a moveon.org member from Homosassa, Fla.

"Speaker Boehner, what are you going to do?" said Evelyn Rivera, of the Young American Dreamers. "You are the one that decides if my mother and I will be reunited before the year is over, and you are the one that will decide if thousands of other families will be separated, and if 17 more children [per day] will be left without their families [due to deportation]."

Rivera was born in Colombia but has lived in Florida since she was three when her family came on a tourist visa and stayed because of concerns about violence in their homeland. Rivera's mother was deported six years ago as the result of a traffic stop.

"We're asking for the human right to be able to stay together with our families," said Lucas DaSilva, of United We Dream. DaSilva was born in Brazil and has been here since he was a year old. His father was deported five years ago, and later passed away without ever being reunited with his son.

Labor and farmworker groups participating in the march included Central Florida Jobs With Justice, Unite Here, Service Employees International Union, the Central Florida AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, Centro Campesino and the Farmworker Association of Florida.

"Every time a boss separates workers based on the color of their skin, what language they speak, where they were born, the boss wins," said Eric Clinton, president of Unite Here Local 362 and of the Central Labor Council.

"That's what the labor movement fights against. We stand together, we stand united," he said. "None of those things matter because at the end of the day we're all workers."

"That's why we're saying to Speaker Boehner, clear our path!" Clinton said before the march. "Clear it now!"

Spirited chants of "Rooney/Ross/Webster/Obama/Congreso, Escucha/Estamos en la lucha" ("Rooney/Ross/Webster/Obama/Congress, listen/ We are in the struggle") and "Que queremos? Reforma/Caundo? Ahora!" ("What do we want? Reform! / When Do we want it? Now!") filled the streets as the participants marched through downtown Orlando to the federal building. Many of them carried signs with slogans such as "Who Would Jesus Deport?" "Migration Is A Human Right" and "Education Not Deportation."

Once there, they filled all four street corners while a table was moved to the intersection and laden with Florida squash, pumpkins, eggplant and tomatoes to symbolize the important role that immigrant labor plays in Florida's agricultural sector.

Following this, the 15 activists, clad in red T-shirts emblazoned with "Clear Our Path To Citizenship," sat down in the intersection and formed a circle. They linked hands to await their arrests, which began about 30 minutes later. As each one was placed in a police vehicle, the protestors chanted "We are proud of you" or "No estan solos" ("You are not alone") and cheered.

Those arrested included Tirso Moreno, general coordinator of the Farmworker Association of Florida; Jeremy Cruz-Haicken, president of Unite Here Local 737, which represents Central Florida hospitality workers; and individuals affiliated with SEIU, Dream Defenders and the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

"Too many workers, including our hospitality members, are living in fear of being fired and deported," said Cruz-Haicken. "It's time for Congress to fix this broken system."

A candlelight vigil for those arrested was held outside the Orange County jail while their friends and comrades awaited their release.

Other groups participating in the march included Mi Familia Vota, PICO Florida, Dreamer's Moms, the Alliance for Citizenship, Fair Immigration Reform Movement, Cambio, Advancement Project, Get Equal, the Florida Immigrant Youth Network and Students Working for Equal Rights.

Photo: Tirso Moreno, of the Farmworker Association of Florida, being led away by the police. (via FWAF)

Report: State lawmakers enable wage theft, child labor

Fri, 01 Nov 2013 13:01:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Corporate interests, led by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and including the National Association of Manufacturers, the Chamber of Commerce and retailers' groups, have undertaken - and continue to undertake - a wide-ranging attack on workers, union and non-union, a new Economic Policy Institute report and a panel discussing it says.

The corporate campaign amounts to a "a broad, ambitious attempt to fundamentally affect the ability to make a living in America," said EPI economist Ross Eisenbrey during the Oct. 31 discussion of The Legislative Attack On American Wages And Labor Standards, 2011-2012. The 100-page report is on EPI's website. YouTube has a video of the discussion.

The right wingers target state legislatures, the panel explained, because state lawmakers are often part-time, and short-staffed. They're also easy to elect: The typical state legislative campaign costs $50,000 or so, they said. Virtually all the states where ALEC and its allies are pushing their agenda are totally GOP-run.

In state capitals, the right wingers receive model legislation word for word from ALEC. They also face little opposition at the state level, except from organized labor. Some 2,000 state legislators nationwide, including the state House speakers in Michigan and Virginia, are ALEC members, the panel noted.

"We don't have a staff, so we don't know what we don't know," leaving state lawmakers at the mercy of the coalition, said another panelist, State Rep. Patrick Hope, D-Va.

To add insult to injury ALEC has found ways to wine and dine its lawmaker members without having to spend a penny. Virginia lawmakers, for example, travelled to lavish corporate-selected locations where they were wined and dined by lobbyists and business barons courtesy of a $230,000 tab picked up by Old Dominion taxpayers. That pattern is repeated in other states too.

The lack of staff and support at the state level is a big reason for the success of the coalition's vicious attacks against public worker unions, added the report's author, University of Oregon professor Gordon Lafer. The coalition poses as allies of private-sector workers, especially non-union workers, "but they do little for them," Lafer said.

Taken individually, the measures the corporate coalition pushes against all workers are bad enough. But when you step back and look at them as a whole, the picture is even worse, both the panelists and the report say.

In 2011-12, the report adds, four states passed bills lowering their minimum wages, 16 states cut unemployment insurance benefits, four expanded the use of child labor - Idaho now lets kids aged 12 work as school janitors -- and 10 restricted the right of their own voters to approve paid sick leave and other measures.

Unionists were also particular targets, the report adds: Fifteen states restricted public workers' collective bargaining rights, dues collection, or both. Other states banned project labor agreements. Lawmakers introduced so-called 'right to work' bills in 19 states, enacting them in GOP-run Michigan and Indiana. And GOP-run state governments banned local prevailing wage laws in Arizona, Idaho, Iowa and Louisiana.

"Each of these is an explicit goal of the lobbies - the Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Restaurant Association, the National Federation of Independent Business and others," that back and fund the ALEC-led coalition, Eisenbrey said. "These are the most powerful lobbies in the country and we should expect even more of this."

Besides trying to weaken and kill organized labor, their leading foes, the corporate coalition also schemes to prevent voters from overturning its fiats. Knowing polls show pro-worker measures would pass if put to popular vote, they restrict the right to vote, both by enacting "voter ID" laws and by banning their own cities, towns and other political subdivisions from voting on various issues.

So when cities rebel - such as the 120 cities nationwide whose ordinances mandate higher minimum wages for firms that do business with the government - the corporate coalition responds with laws banning such future ordinances. The GOP-run Wisconsin government went further: It not only banned future local minimum wage hikes but it repealed Milwaukee's increase, which had won 63 percent of the vote, Lafer said.

The anti-worker coalition also fights against laws preventing wage theft. That's the tendency by employers in low-wage industries or in industries with many exploitable workers - such as construction, fast food and home health care - to not pay the minimum wage, not pay required overtime or, in many cases, not pay the workers at all.

Florida abolished its state Labor Department a decade ago and has no one to probe wage theft. Miami-Dade County responded with its own small claims court for such cases, which has handled 600 cases and recovered $2 million. The GOP-run Florida legislature is trying to abolish the court, Eisenbrey, who told the story, said.

St. Louis hearing spotlights government subsidies of fast food giants

Fri, 01 Nov 2013 12:13:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS - "We are here to help create a climate where the denial of workers' rights will not be tolerated," Joan Suarez, co-chair of the St. Louis Jobs with Justice Workers' Rights Board, said as she convened a public hearing at City Hall here on Oct. 28.

The public hearing was called to draw attention to two recently released reports documenting the high cost of low wages in the fast food industry and to highlight the dramatic series of strike actions by fast food workers across the country demanding the right to form or join a union without retaliation.

The reports, released in mid-October titled, "Fast Food, Poverty Wages: The Public Cost of Low Wage Jobs in the Fast-Food Industry" and "Super-Sizing Public Costs: How Low Wages at Top Fast Food Chains Leave Taxpayers Footing the Bill," argue that low wages in the fast food industry costs U.S. taxpayers nearly $7 billion annually.

Allan MacNeill, a professor at Webster University, said, due to low wages "49 percent of fast food workers in Missouri rely on public assistance, costing taxpayers $143 million a year."

"The findings are shocking," McNeill added, "but not surprising."

"It's not surprising because people often wonder 'How do people live on the money they earn in the fast food industry?' Well, now we know the answer. They don't. They have to rely on other sources including public assistance."

"This is an enormous public subsidy" to already very profitable corporations, MacNeiil continued.

Furthermore, he added, "the estimates are very conservative, and in fact they undercount the actual public cost," as they only include five of the largest federal public assistance programs, while excluding other federal and state programs.

According to Super Sizing Public Costs the "ten largest fast food corporations alone made more than $7.4 billion in profits in 2012".

"Taxpayers are directly subsidizing the profits of fast food giants like McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King," the Rev. Martin Rafanan, told People's World.

Krystal McLemore, a Taco Bell employee earning $7.65 an hour, said, "big corporations need to be held accountable. I can't even afford comfortable maternity clothes."

McLemore - who is six months pregnant with her second child - works 30-40 hours a week, yet still qualifies for food stamps and Medicaid.

Alisha Snider, a Wendy's employee, earning $7.50 an hour, said, "I rely on food stamps to put food on the table."

"I work hard every day and I don't make enough to feed my family and pay all my bills. I receive public assistance not because I want to but because I have to make sure my children eat. Wendy's should pay us more, so we don't have to worry about where our next meal will come from."

Holly Roe, a case worker at the Department of Family Services, said, "too many of my clients are low-wage workers at fast food restaurants."

Roe, who is also a member of the Missouri State Workers Union-Communication Workers Union of America (MSWU-CWA) Local 6355, said, fast food workers are "disregarded and disrespected" at work, which she calls, "economic bullying."

"Can we really expect fast food companies who have no concern for their employees to be concerned about the customers," Roe asked?

The public hearing comes on the heels of a series of fast food worker strikes demanding $15 an hour and the right to form or join a union. During the most recent strike wave, thousands of low-wage fast food workers walked out of restaurants in over 60 cities.

Don Giljum, retired business manager of the Operating Engineers' International Union Local 148 and a member of the Workers' Rights Board, told the People's World, "Fast food workers are taking a stand for all of us. We have to stand with them."

Photo: An August 27 demonstration by fast food workers takes place in St. Louis. It is one of many that took place in 58 cities across the nation. (Derik Holtmann/AP)

ENDA nears passage in Senate

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 15:14:00 +0000

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., signed on as a co-sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act on Monday night, and the two other Democratic holdouts, Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., told the media on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, they would be voting for the bill. That means the legislation, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the illegal employment discrimination list, is only one vote away from clearing the 60-vote, filibuster-proof threshold in the Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told the Washington Post, "I feel pretty good" about ENDA's successful passage. "I've talked with Democrats and Republicans, and I think we've got 60 now," he said.

Two Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Mark Kirk of Illinois, signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, and all Democrats have either signed on as co-sponsors or pledged to vote for it. That includes the newest Democratic senator, Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Vote counters say if you include Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who voted for ENDA in July when it was passed in committee, that brings the total up to 59.

Who could be number 60? Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, who came out in favor of gay rights after his son came out, said he was "inclined to back" the bill, but wants changes to the bill's "religious liberties provisions," reports the Washington Post.

A coalition of LGBT, labor, women's and civil rights groups have been working for years to pass ENDA. Gay rights groups are also putting the pressure on other Republican senators for support, including Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.

But if it passes in the Senate, the biggest hurdle then becomes the Republican-led House of Representatives. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., reintroduced ENDA in the House this year, but it's unlikely to be considered in the Republican-controlled chamber anytime soon. Last time the House voted on ENDA was 2007. The then-Democratic-led House passed the bill 235-184.

Readers can support ENDA's passage by telling your senators that "no one should be fired because of who they are or who they love" on the Human Rights Campaign website.

Photo: HRC

Millions face ruthless food stamps cuts

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 14:17:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) - More than 47 million Americans who receive food stamps will see their benefits go down starting Friday, just as Congress has begun negotiations on further cuts to the program.

Beginning in November, a temporary benefit from the 2009 economic stimulus that boosts food stamp dollars will no longer be available. According to the Agriculture Department, that means a family of four receiving food stamps will start receiving $36 less a month.

The benefits, which go to 1 in 7 Americans, fluctuate based on factors that include food prices, inflation and income. The rolls have swelled as the economy has struggled in recent years, with the stimulus providing higher benefits and many people signing up for the first time.

As a result, the program has more than doubled in cost since 2008, now costing almost $80 billion a year. That large increase in spending has turned the program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, into a target for House Republicans looking to reduce spending.

Negotiations on a wide-ranging farm bill, including cuts to the SNAP program, began Wednesday. Five-year farm bills passed by both the House and the Senate would cut food stamps, reductions that would come on top of the cut that will go into effect Friday. But the two chambers are far apart on the amounts.

Legislation passed by the GOP-controlled House would cut food stamps by an additional $4 billion annually and tighten eligibility requirements. The House bill would also end government waivers that have allowed able-bodied adults without dependents to receive food stamps indefinitely and allow states to put broad new work requirements in place.

The Senate farm bill would cut a tenth of the House amount, with Democrats and President Barack Obama opposing major cuts.

Farm-state lawmakers have been pushing the farm bill for more than two years, and Wednesday's conference negotiations represented the opening round in final talks. If the bill is not passed by the end of the year and current farm law is not extended, certain dairy supports would expire that could raise the price of milk. Farmers would start to feel more effects next spring.

"It took us years to get here but we are here," House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., said. "Let's not take years to get it done."

The biggest obstacle to a final bill is how far apart the two parties are on food stamps. Lucas said at the conference meeting that he was hoping to find common ground on the issue, but House GOP leaders such as Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., have insisted on higher cuts, saying the program should be targeted to the neediest people.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sent out a statement as the meeting opened that said food stamp recipients "deserve swift action from Congress to pass a bill that provides the much-needed nutritional support for our children, our seniors, our veterans and our communities."

As Congress debates the cuts to the program, charities say they are preparing for the farm bill reductions as well as the scheduled cuts taking place Friday.

"Charities cannot fill the gap for the cuts being proposed to SNAP," said Maura Daly of Feeding America, a network of the nation's food banks. "We are very concerned about the impact on the charitable system."

Daly says food banks may have to as much as double their current levels of distribution if the House cuts were enacted. The Congressional Budget Office says as many as 3.8 million people could lose their benefits in 2014 if the House bill became law.

Photo: AP

AFT’S Weingarten: School reformers ignore “elephant in the room”

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 12:02:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - So-called school "reformers," bent on closing "failing" schools, ignore "the elephant in the room," poverty, that accounts for poor student performance, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten says.

Speaking in mid-October to an Economic Policy Institute forum, the teachers union head also challenged a right wing myth, and a right wing goal: That most public schools are failing and that education should be turned over to the private sector, and that tests should be the exclusive measure of a school's and a teacher's effectiveness.

Instead, she said, studies and comparisons with the U.S. "peer group" of developed nations show improvements in students' learning across the board in the last two decades. The catch is that the improvements are uneven, with schools that sit in high-poverty areas still trailing behind.

Weingarten was one of several panelists who challenged the prevailing mythology about schools, including the teach-to-the-test goals the right wing has imposed on U.S. schools, starting with anti-worker and anti-public teacher President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind law in 2001.

Both the AFT and the nation's other teachers union, the National Education Association, strongly criticized the law. At one point NEA and its Michigan affiliates sued to stop it, saying Congress promised funds for improvement if schools would follow the law's dictates, but didn't provide the money. NEA lost.

"The other side starved the schools - especially those schools that need help the most - and then they say that the schools are failing and parents deserve more. So the only alternative they push is their schemes: Cyber schools, charters and vouchers," Weingarten said. Studies show those alternatives don't work.

The difference now, as Congress considers updating basic federal education law - including Bush's law - is that parents are joining the anti-No Child Left Behind crusade, Weingarten told a packed house at EPI.

Parents, she said, will march against No Child Left Behind nationwide on Dec. 7-8. Intellectually, Diane Ravitch, a former "reformer" whose two books about the state of the nation's schools slam not just Bush's law but the "alternatives"-charters, home schooling, and federal cash to parents of private school students - provides them heft.

Ravitch has credibility in the fight because she's a former U.S. Education Department official herself and a longtime school "reform" activist in New York.

Her books, which she discussed at the session with Weingarten and other speakers, show there is virtually no difference in performance by students in charter schools nationwide and in more traditional public schools.

And the public schools in poverty-stricken areas can be improved with more targeting of money and with more services to treat the students, not just teach them, Ravitch said.

The reformers ignore the evidence and "double down" on failed solutions that load the entire responsibility on teachers for troubled schools, Weingarten added.

But there is a more comprehensive solution to the problems those schools face, she declared: Turn schools into community centers providing not just teaching but a wide range of services - from meals to health care to enrichment programs - that benefit the child as a whole. Weingarten's model is the early 20^th century settlement houses that provided an entire range of services to new immigrants.

"Let's do wraparound services," such as the AFT local and the Cincinnati public schools have constructed, she said. "The schools would be a place to go for children to get the entire range of services they need - and that their families need, too. And then let's put in an accountability system, not just testing, to ensure the services get to the kids and that they work.

"And schools, unions, teachers and families should go ahead with such plans without waiting for federal prodding or funds," Weingarten said. "That's because, in the current political climate, "there will be no re-upping" of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act - which sends federal funds to schools - or No Child Left Behind, either.

"Let's figure out what to do to open the system and its accessibility, so that once and for all, we stop the stupidity of kids being trained to be test-takers," she ended.

Photo: Weingarten speaks at a school funding rally in Philadelphia. Isaac Riddle/AP

Private contractors rip off Medicaid

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 11:19:00 +0000

On October 24th, in yet another attempt to derail implementation of Obamacare, House Republicans publicly questioned representatives of contracted information technology (IT) companies about the failure of healthcare.gov. These companies were hired to create healthcare.gov as an easy way for Americans to register for health insurance. The Obama administration's Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, giving ample time for these contractors to do their job.

Rather than focus on the failure of well-compensated private sector companies to fulfill their contractual obligation, Republican committee members used this opportunity to have these IT companies to wash their hands and blame their failure on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This hearing was a thinly-veiled effort for the Republicans to liken the nonfunctional website to Obamacare itself. No doubt, the goal was to create a public uproar against Obamacare.

The whole healthcare.gov debacle brings up the issue of wasted tax dollars on private-sector contractors in general.

Commonly known as outsourcing, a highly questionable argument is made by politicians that outsourcing is less costly than hiring career civil servants. Sadly, I don't have access to accounting tea leaves that compare the costliness of hiring well-educated and talented career civil servants to hiring inept contractors that do, at best, mediocre work. Consequently, I can't challenge the assertion that profit-making, and euphemistically nonprofit, corporations can do better providing public services for the American taxpayer. I can only speak from my observations well as a now retired employee of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare (DPW). As a 26-year veteran of state civil service, I have witnessed IT contractors and behavioral health managed-care companies (BHMCOs) suckle at the public teat while delivering only a modicum of benefit for the enormous number of taxpayer dollars paid to them.

The most heartbreaking example of the poor cost-to-benefit ratio of hiring contractors is the millions in Medicaid dollars paid to Pennsylvania's BHMCOs.

The four big "nonprofit" BHMCOs with whom I had low-level dealings with are Value Behavioral Health, Community Behavioral Health, Community Care Behavioral Health, and Magellan. Mind you, these BHMCOs are not charities. Medicaid is divided among these non-government entities for each and every welfare recipient, whether or not he or she receives mental health services.

I wonder how many dollars not spent on services are reinvested into expanding each BHMCOs affiliated network of providers. Certainly what is not reinvested is pocketed. What's heartbreaking is that, with all the Medicaid dollars paid to these contractors, most of Pennsylvania's seriously mentally ill population can be found on the streets or in prisons. Like the IT contractors who pocketed hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars in return for the nonfunctioning healthcare.gov, BHMCOs pocket millions in Medicaid, while the majority of Pennsylvania's impoverished mentally ill are either homeless are incarcerated by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections or Pennsylvania's 67 county jails.

Under the Kennedy administration's New Freedom initiative, the Mental Health Act of 1963 was passed by Congress to provide federal dollars, overseen by the states, for distribution to county governments for community-based alternatives to state mental hospitals. These dollars were, presumably, meant to create community mental health centers staffed by dedicated county-employed professionals. Fifty years have passed and mental health care for the poor is now a cash cow for the BHMCOs a.k.a. contractors.

Gregory Schnacky is retired from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

Photo: Control of the national healthcare website was contracted out to a private company.

No ordinary crisis: The shutdown and its aftermath

Thu, 31 Oct 2013 10:55:00 +0000

The settlement reached more than a week ago to reopen the federal government constituted a major victory for democratic governance. It firmly rebuffed a reckless attempt by a small group of right-wing extremists to leverage the routine lifting of the debt ceiling and funding of government operations (what the right wing calls "forcing events") into something much more serious and consequential.

Defunding Obamacare and winning other White House concessions by undemocratic means was to be but the first trophy in a far more ambitious and longer term power play by a reactionary clique and their big-pocketed financial backers to reverse the 2012 election results (which left them, much to their surprise, in a subordinate position in Washington), disempower President Obama for the remainder of his term, bypass democratic institutions and rules, and, above all, impose its deeply reactionary political agenda on the country - not to mention position itself to gain control of Congress in 2014 and the presidency in 2016.

In an earlier article, I called this adventurist assault on our democracy a new phase of a very American coup. I would add, in hindsight, that it was not simply a new but a more dangerous phase in which this clique of right-wing extremists, not satisfied with obstructing the democratic will and majority rule, made a reckless bid to illegitimately install itself as the dominant political force at the federal level.

When that prospect is combined with the right-wing domination of roughly 25 state governments, which have turned into laboratories for far-right political, economic, and social policies, it should be frightening for anyone concerned about our country's future.

That this extremist tea party crowd not only came up empty, but also with egg or worse on their faces, is explained by a combination of factors.

First, the president, to his credit, didn't blink; he refused to give in to mafia-like extortion. He evidently understood, in no small measure from earlier experience with the sequester, that if he gave ground again it would be tantamount to surrendering his presidency and much more.

Second, the American people in their majority pierced through the "both sides responsible" sham. By the second week of the shutdown nearly three-quarters of the public fixed responsibility on the Republicans. This no doubt had a sobering impact on established and moderate voices in the GOP.

Third, the tea party wrongly assumed that people were ready to go to war over Obamacare. While many people may not like it, or the caricatured and distorted version of it that they are served up by right-wing media and politicians, few were ready to shut down the government in order to defund or repeal it.

Fourth, organized actions throughout the country stiffened the resistance of Democrats and were surely noted by Republicans representing swing districts.

Finally, pressure from Wall Street and other sections of big capital was a factor in forcing a settlement.

And that shows that this wasn't a class war "pure and simple," in which the class of capitalists lines up on one side, with the working class on the other.

Certainly, on one side was a coalition of right-wing forces, including a sliver of well heeled capitalists - the most racist, anti-labor, anti-democratic, and reactionary. However, on the other side was not only a majority of the American people, but also major sections of the capitalist class who, while sharing many of the near and longer term aims of right-wing extremists in the Republican Party, were not ready to risk pulling the plug on the economy in order to achieve them.

So much so that as the clock ticked down on lifting the debt ceiling, these capitalists brought their considerable weight to bear on Republican leaders in Congress to agree to a settlement that left Obamacare untouched and essentially mirrored what was on the table just prior to the shutdown.

While this meant throwing the tea party crowd under the bus and temporarily being in the company of people and organizations that are normally their adversaries, it was a price that big capital was ready to pay in order to guarantee the smooth reproduction of U.S. and world capitalism as well as maintain its role of global imperialist hegemon. Capitalists ruthlessly exploit crises and disasters to be sure, but most prefer a predictable economic and political environment in which to accumulate capital and profits; shocks to the system are not their favored cup of tea.

Thus, this was a particular kind of war that brought together a peculiar and motley grouping of people and social forces and turned, in the deepest sense, on the issue of democracy and democratic governance. It didn't come close to lining up "class against class," but its outcome will nonetheless impress itself on class as well as other democratic struggles going forward.

A dogmatic reading of Marxism would not allow us to make such an analysis. Instead this understanding follows from a Marxism that admits new experience, employs dialectics, and possesses an eye for the contradictory, concrete, and peculiar ways in which classes and people interact on the ground, far from the neat boundaries of abstract theory and rigidly constructed social categories.

It is said that the settlement does nothing more than "kick the can down the road." This is true. The funding authorization for government agencies expires January 15, the debt limit will be revisited a few weeks later on February 7, and spending levels remain at sequester (depressed) levels.

But the lay of the land has changed in contradictory and significant ways in the course of this struggle.

The tea party and Republican Party overall have been weakened. Smarting from the disappointing results of last year's elections, party leaders had hoped to rebrand themselves, to adjust their image and message to new demographic and cultural realities.

But even before the shutdown, their rebranding efforts were limping along. Now, with the shutdown debacle, they have dug themselves into a much deeper hole.

Moreover, Republicans emerge out of the shutdown not only with a stained brand, but also in disarray, with pronounced tensions and splits. Some of this will be played out in GOP primaries in the coming year.

That will make a Republican comeback more difficult.

The president and Democrats overall, on the other hand, come out of this struggle energized, if not fully united.

Beyond Washington, in the wake of the shutdown growing numbers of American people possess a far keener sense of the danger of right-wing extremism if not checked. The school of experience can be an insightful teacher, as it was in this case, about the particular role of various political forces in society. This has the potential of giving added reach, strength and unity to the movements and coalitions battling the far right at the national, state, and local level.

And the organized working class and democratic movements exit the shutdown struggle with more bounce in their step too. Their leaders almost to a one have expressed their determination to reframe the coming battle over the federal budget as a battle for people's needs rather than austerity; to press ahead on jobs, infrastructure renewal, and safety net programs; to regain the initiative on comprehensive immigration reform, including an immediate halt to deportations; to vigorously oppose construction of the Keystone pipeline; and to resist any cuts or "reforms" in earned income benefit programs.

They are also turning their attention to the 2014 mid-term elections where the prospects of defeating the right have appreciably improved in the aftermath of the shutdown.

Sounds promising, but no one should conclude from this that the sailing ahead is going to be easy.

Finance capital and its class partners will regroup. Their differences with Republican leaders and firebrands were more tactical than strategic. They will find common ground in pressing a right-wing agenda in the immediate budget battles over spending, taxes, and "entitlement" reform.

Nor can the broader movement have complete confidence in the centrist and blue dog groupings in the Democratic Party. These elements don't embrace the economic program of their far-right adversaries, but too many operate within the frame of austerity, deficit reduction, and cutting, if not eliminating, earned income benefits programs.

Finally, right-wing extremists and their corporate sponsors lost the shutdown battle, but they remain a formidable force and their strategic goal is unchanged: not simply to shrink, but to take over the federal government and then wield federal and state power to recast politics, economics, culture, public opinion, and society in their interests and image.

Thus the struggle against right-wing extremism continues to be the overriding strategic task of the working class and democratic movements.

That doesn't mean tamping down confrontations with corporate capital or reining in more fundamental answers to current problems or silencing anti-corporate and radical ideological voices or corralling the search for new forms of political independence or building the left in size and influence. On the contrary, just the opposite is needed.

But it does mean grasping that the pathway to restructuring our institutions and policies in a consistently anti-corporate direction - not to mention advancing to socialism - will only fully open up to the degree that the right wing is decisively defeated.

But for that to happen, the organized labor and people's movements will have to act with even greater vigor ideologically and practically. The task is no less than empowering, energizing, uniting, and raising the understanding of vast numbers of the American people in the context of sustained struggle for their immediate needs, and in diverse arenas of struggle - not least of which is the fall elections next year.

Of critical importance is the fight against racism in its material, institutional, and ideological forms. Racism was the main vehicle to bust up the New Deal coalition and fuel the ascendancy of the right wing to its prominent position in American political life. So too the struggle against racism in its old and new forms will be at the core of building a movement that possesses the ideological, political, and organizational capacity to dislodge the right wing from its positions of power and usher in an era of deep-going progressive, even radical, change.

And finally, if earlier periods of transformative change offer lessons, it is imperative that the left, broadly defined, play a active role in this process. But for that to happen, it (and I include the communists) will have to demonstrate the same willingness as our sisters and brothers in labor are showing to changing and adapting itself to new conditions, challenges, and sensibilities of this era.

Photo: The "people's park" - the National Mall - was forced to close by the shutdown. The U.S. Capitol is in the background. Photo taken Oct. 6, 2013. Wikimedia Commons

Media aids Republican attack on Affordable Care Act

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 17:00:00 +0000

The media seems to be working overtime to spread mass confusion on the Affordable Care Act. The health care reform law can be complicated, and the messy website roll out has not helped any, but why is the media aiding and abetting the law's enemies in creating such a furor? Why aren't they more careful in looking at the law in its entirety?

Let's take a look at one recent article by Chicago Sun Times columnist Carol Marin with the headline, "Obamacare jacks up her insurance." Marin writes about a former Democratic congressional aide and Obamacare supporter, Sue Klinkhamer. Apparently, Klinkhamer is getting the royal shaft by the new law, and the implication is that millions of others are too.

Klinkhamer said three years ago she was paying $225 a month with a $2,500 deductible, which increased every year. This year she is paying $291 with a $3,500 deductible. Her insurer, Blue Cross, recently sent her a letter offering a similar plan for $647.12 per month or a $322.32 per month plan with a $6,500 deductible. Wow that is harsh!

But let's take a breath and dive deeper. We all know that insurance companies look for any opportunity to gouge customers. The Affordable Care Act does offer the insurance companies that opportunity as it mandates that companies offer more benefits and protections. Do you think these corporate giants will give anyone more for less?! These minimum protections include coverage for pre-existing conditions, free preventive care, end to lifetime and yearly limits and extended coverage to young adults under 26.

Let's go deeper still. Nowhere in Marin's column was any mention about what Klinkhamer would pay if she bought her insurance off the Affordable Care Act insurance marketplace. (I'll give Marin the benefit of the doubt because of the website problems.)

Yet, Paul Waldman of the American Prospect investigated a similar story as Marin's - person gets an outrageous rate increase - run by NBC Nightly News. Using his best-guess estimates for age and type of plan, he looked on the government health insurance website and found that the subject of the NBC Nightly News story would get better insurance for only $23 more a month than she currently pays.

Inspired, I ran a similar best-guess simulation for Klinkhamer and found she could get a Blue Cross "gold" plan with 80 percent coverage for $497.48, or the "bronze" plan with 60 percent coverage for $306.54. These were plans for an individual and spouse, and did not include any possible subsidies. Not sure how these plans compare regarding deductibles vs. 60-80 percent coverage, but you get the picture.

Apparently, Marin and NBC's stories are not unique. The media are flush with them, according to Waldman. It is a technique called "exemplar," used to show the impact of a policy through an individual's experience. But the media coverage is dominated by the "person who seems to be getting screwed" story, Waldman writes, and exemplar stories of people being helped by Obamacare are sorely lacking. (I would add to the sorely lacking column: commonsense fixes for the ACA, like a Medicare for all, single-payer option. Or where Obamacare is lowering costs.)

The "I'm getting screwed by Obamacare" story makes for good GOP hysteria but not for good journalism. In fact, Marin's article fit into the Republican narrative so well that the National Republican Congressional Committee sent it out to its press list.

Other examples of misleading headlines, included NBC's, "Obama administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance," and two New York Times': "Millions of poor are left uncovered by health law" and "Health care law fails to lower prices for rural areas." In both New York Times stories, the failures boil down to Republican intransigence regarding the health care law and public investment. In the first case, Republican governors refuse to expand Medicaid despite having millions of poor citizens who could benefit from the program. In the second, rural costs would come down significantly if Congress had funded a part of the ACA that provided for cooperatives to be established in 50 states.

The NBC reporter who wrote the story about the Obama administration "knowing" that people couldn't keep their health insurance admitted on MSNBC that people's plans are not being canceled, but are being replaced (ala Klinkhamer) although there is more to it that has to do with "individual markets" and what plans get exempted and what plans lose their exemption because of "major changes." For a fuller debunking, read Igor Volsky of ThinkProgress, who explains why the NBC story doesn't hold up.

If you just read headlines only, which most people do, what other conclusion can you draw except failure? The accumulation of these headlines and sound bites create the type of hysterical atmosphere in which the Republicans and their corporatist supporters thrive.

Photo: Flickr (CC)

Congress pressed to pass Wall Street “Robin Hood tax”

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 16:31:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - After more than 200 advocates of the "Robin Hood tax" marched up Constitution Ave. here today to the Longworth House Office Building, lawmakers heard the vice president of the European Parliament, Ani Podimata, describe a solution for raising hundreds of billions of dollars a year - a tiny tax on financial speculation now being implemented across Europe.

The financial transaction tax amounts to only fractions of a penny on the dollar value of every stock, bond and derivatives trade - five cents per $100. Estimates of its potential return to the U.S. treasury run as high as $700 billion a year.

Although opinion polls show strong support for the tax speakers warned that the House GOP would oppose it and that even some Democrats are cool to the idea. They noted that right-wingers in the House plan to bring up a bill repealing part of the restrictions that now exist on the financers' derivatives.

Republican maneuvering in favor of Wall Street, however, failed to dampen the enthusiasm of the nurses among the demonstrators. Their union, National Nurses United, led today's lobbying effort.

"Nurses of America have a message for Wall Street," declared NNU co-President Jean Ross. "You have the resources to heal America, to give access to quality education, rescue climate change and create a sutable economy, especially living wage jobs."

"What has Wall Street done for us lately?" Ross asked. "Was it good for America to turn to them to take bailout money we provided and gamble with it again? Was it right for America for them to make a fortune while people went bankrupt?" The crowd responded "No!"

Among those marching and testifying before lawmakers today was Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., whose bill, HR 1579, creates a financial transaction tax but exempts stock and bond trades of ordinary people who don't make their living from professional trading - individuals with income up to $50,000 and couples earning up to $75,000.

Jeffrey Sachs, one of numerous progressive economists who backs the tax, also testified today. He said Ellison's bill, called the Inclusive Prosperity Act, would generate massive funding for jobs, housing, healthcare, fighting climate change, and finding a cure for AIDS.

"The basic idea is a tax on every financial transaction, the equivalent of a sales tax," explained Robert Pollin, economics professor at the University of Massachusetts. "With the financial transaction tax we can raise the revenue we need and discourage excessive speculation on Wall Street. It's being done in the world's second largest financial market, London, and the fastest growing security markets in the world, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Russia. If they can do it, so can we."

"With the latest Congressional super committee on budget deliberations about to meet in the aftermath of the brinkmanship over federal funding, a change in tone is needed in Washington," said Karen Higgins, RN, co-president of National Nurses United. "We are calling on Congress and the White House to refocus on a human needs budget, not just an endless cycle of more austerity and more cuts. We need the Robin Hood tax."

"The United States has recognized that we can end the AIDS pandemic," said Jennifer Flynn of Health GAP. "Yet if the constant focus is on budget cuts, we risk the AIDS crisis spiraling out of control. The way to avoid this is to join all of the other financial markets and implement a Robin Hood Tax."

In addition to the nurses, members of numerous other unions particpated in the action today including the Amalgamated Transit Union, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the Communications Workers, the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Chicago Teachers Union, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Postal Workers, the California School Employees Association, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, the Machinists, Interfaith Worker Justice, the Auto Workers, Jobs with Justice, and the Kentrucky AFL-CIO.

The pushback from big business is not just happening in the U.S. The planned Jan. 1, 2014 start of the financial transaction tax agreed to by 11 European countries is being delayed because of this pushback. The Deutsche Bank has called it "counterproductive," which critics of the bank say is just another way for the bank to point out that the tax would mean less money for the bank.

Photo: Nurses were enthusiastic particpants in the effort to lobby lawmakers today for a financial transactions tax. Photo credit, National Nurses United Facebook page

Texas forces Dem candidate for governor to file affidavit to vote

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 15:05:00 +0000

FORT WORTH, Tex. - Wendy Davis, a Democrat who is running for governor of the Lone Star State in 2014, attempted to vote early in this year's elections in Fort Worth when she was told by poll workers that she had to sign an affidavit to vote under Gov. Rick Perry's new voter disenfranchisement law.

The candidate's identification showed both her maiden and married names, Wendy Russell Davis, while the voter registration rolls only included her married last name, reading "Wendy Davis." Because the names didn't match exactly, she was required to sign an affidavit to vote.

Davis then told reporters that she was worried that the extra requirements would discourage women from voting whose names had changed because of marriage or divorce, particularly if they were forced to leave the polls and return with marriage or divorce documentation.

Meanwhile, male voters, who are more likely to vote for Republicans than Democrats (unlike female voters who are more likely to vote the opposite way), would rarely face a similar extra barrier to exercise their right to vote.

Proponents of the new restrictions fall back upon the canard that the new restrictions are needed to prevent voter fraud, something that there is scant evidence for and it seems very likely the new restrictions will stop more legitimate voters from casting their ballot than it will prevent fraudulent ballots from being cast. Numerous critics have blasted Perry's intentions:

"Texas Governor Rick Perry's voter ID law is a blatant effort to defeat Wendy Davis by disenfranchising tens of thousands of women voters," Democratic Governors Association senior adviser and spokeswoman Lis Smith wrote in a recent fundraising email a week earlier. "Gov. Perry and his handpicked successor, Greg Abbott, are trying to undo the voting rights women fought for-a century ago! It's downright anti-democratic. If Wendy had been Texas' governor, she would have stopped it cold."

Photo: Wendy Davis. Nick Wass/AP

UN rep meets with tribes on abduction of Native children

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 13:08:00 +0000

PINE RIDGE, S.D. - Following outcry over South Dakota's racist abductions of Lakota, Nakota, and Dakota Sioux children from their families and placement of the children with white foster care families, United Nations Human Rights Officer Giorgia Passarelli recently met with tribal members, relatives of the children taken by the South Dakota Department of Social Services. The UN representative was formally invited by President Bryan Brewer of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

The conference took place August 24 at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The aim of the meeting was twofold: First, Passarelli would provide tribal members with information on filing human rights grievances under the UN Charter charging South Dakota with the crime of genocide. Second, the relatives of the children abducted by DSS would give testimony to the UN representative about the abductions. Tribal members from all of South Dakota's nine reservations were present.

The press was barred as a condition of the meeting at the request of Passarelli. The reason given was that if certain procedures were not followed the UN could not consider the complaints, as this would be in violation of the UN Charter for the processing of human rights violations in a member country. This did not sit well with tribal members who felt that news of the kidnappings needed to be reported. Among media present, in addition to People's World, were journalists from Al Jazeera News who arrive from New York and were very frustrated at the press exclusion. Tribal members expressed the view that barring the press was a violation of their Constitutional rights and said that they would bring this up at the conference. However they concluded that in order not to do anything to jeopardize the process it was best not to raise the issue. I was able to conduct interviews after the conference and subsequently by phone. More on other interviews will appear in subsequent columns.

The background of the conference was a march on the UN headquarters in Manhattan by Lakota grandmothers and activists last April. This was part of a 13-city Truth Tour culminating in an attempt to present a petition charging genocide to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. The petition was titled the "Official Lakota Oyate [nation] Complaint of Genocide Based on the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."

The Lakota delegation was physically blocked by UN security officers from presenting the Secretary-General's office with the genocide charges against the United States. In the complaint, as evidence of genocide, the Lakota petition cited the imposition of Third World living conditions of abject poverty on the Lakota people; U.S. theft of land and relentless violation of sovereignty rights; assimilation policies that destroy identity, language and culture; and environmental hazards including abandoned open uranium mines and the threatened death-dealing Keystone XL pipeline.

Also, in January, because the abductions had become so severe, Oglala Sioux President Brewer declared a state of emergency on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He cited the fact that of the over 700 Native children taken by the state in the past year, 90 percent were members of or were eligible for membership in the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

This was the backdrop of the conference. According to tribal members who participated, the testimony given was extremely emotional. One grandmother cried for hours during the meeting, they said. In heart-wrenching testimony family members repeatedly said they did not know the whereabouts of most of the youngsters abducted by DSS.

Interestingly, at the conference reporters learned that the much revered Oglala Lakota activist Russell Means was instrumental in the founding of the Lakota People's Law Project, which is providing the legal expertise for the tribes on this issue. "Russell started the Lakota People's Law Project," said Standing Rock Council member Phyllis Young. She said that years ago Lakota grandmothers asked Means to do something to stop the snatching of Lakota children by the state. Means approached the Romero Institute in California and the result was the founding of the law project. Young also related many stories of Means and the American Indian Movement (AIM) in its early days.

Another tribal member at the conference, Oglala Sioux elder Regina Brave, who also has been with AIM since its early days, recalled experiences in the 1970s at the famous Wounded Knee, S.D., protests that still resonate decades later. Brave, 72, is from Oglala, a traditional Lakota community at Pine Ridge. She connected the kidnapping of Indian children to an American government campaign of genocide that has been raging nonstop ever since the inception of the United States in the 18th century. "There never was any intention by the U.S. government for Indian people to survive," Brave said. "All my life I've carried anger and rage because of what has happened to my people."

Also at the conference were adult adoptees taken from their families as children, who were looking for their relatives. An Indian adoption association is reportedly in formation to help with these efforts. Indeed, there are thousands upon thousands of Native adoptees. as even today there are 32 states in violation of the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). Before the passage of ICWA, 25 percent of all Native children were being adopted by non-Indian families. This must surely rival the "lost generations" of Native Australian children abducted from their families in the 19th and 20th centuries - the difference being that in the U.S. the abductions are still taking place.

Tribal members are waiting to find out what the results of the meeting with the UN will be. Calls by this journalist to UN human rights representative Passarelli were not returned. It is a story we will continue to follow.

Photo: Regina Brave, member of the Oglala Sioux nation and respected tribal elder, at the Aug. 24 conference at the Pine Ridge Reservation. Melanie Bender/PW

Judge tosses key part of Texas anti-abortion law

Tue, 29 Oct 2013 12:05:00 +0000

AUSTIN, Texas - A key provision in a Texas anti-abortion law was overturned Monday, which could eventually set up a legal clash in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled that restrictions affecting abortion clinic physicians placed an undue burden on women seeking access to such facilities.

The law had been scheduled to go into effect Tuesday. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott immediately appealed Yeakel's order to the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

The lawsuit challenging the harsh restrictions had been brought by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

Abbott's spokeswoman Lauren Bean said, "As everyone, including the trial court judge, has acknowledged, this is a matter that will ultimately be resolved by the appellate courts or the U.S. Supreme Court."

The law, which passed this past summer after a contentious debate in the state Capitol - and an instant-classic filibuster by State Senator Wendy Davis - required, among other provisions, that abortion clinic doctors have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.

Clinic officials testified in court that many of their doctors have been unable to earn this privilege because of the contacted hospitals' religious scruples, arcane requirements and fears of protests.

Judge Yeakel, however, let stand a controversial provision in the law that requires doctors to follow outdated guidelines for administering an abortion-inducing drug.

In a statement released to the media, Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said, "While this ruling protects access to safe and legal abortion for women in many parts of the state, part of this ruling will make it impossible for many women to access medication abortion, which is safe and effective early in pregnancy."

But Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement, "We will continue fighting to implement the laws passed by the duly-elected officials of our state, laws that reflect the will and values of Texans."

His comments were echoed by current tea party favorite, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. "This law is constitutional and consistent with U.S. Supreme Court precedent protecting the life and health of the mother and child. I hope the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will uphold Texas' reasonable law."

While the case wends its way through the courts, it serves as a reminder of the stakes in next year's governor's race here. Abbott, hand-picked by Gov. Perry, has the campaign war chest and support of the petro-rich business and political establishment in the state. On the Democratic side, Davis, a champion of women's health and public education, is seen as his likely opponent.

Stay tuned.

Photo: Part of the mass protests inside the Texas state Capitol against the anti-abortion bill, June 23, 2013. Ann Harkness CC 2.0

Thousands in Washington protest government spying

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 11:36:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Thousands marched on Washington on Saturday to protest against the US government's online surveillance programs, whose vast scope was revealed this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

People carried signs reading: "Stop Mass Spying," "Thank you, Edward Snowden," and "Unplug Big Brother" as they gathered at the foot of the U.S. Capitol to demonstrate against the online surveillance by the National Security Agency.

The march attracted protesters from both progressive and conservative groups in opposition to what demonstrators declared to be unlawful government spying on Americans.

Snowden's disclosures have raised concerns that NSA surveillance may span not just foreign, but domestic online and phone communication.

His latest disclosures showed that the United States may have tapped the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, adding to the growing outrage against U.S. data-gathering practices abroad and prompting a phone call between Ms. Merkel and President Obama.

Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP

Obama renews immigration call, but ignores deportation crisis

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 15:24:00 +0000

The following is a statement released by the president of the AFL-CIO, Richard Trumka, on President Barack Obama's speech, calling on Congress to pass immigration reform.

Today millions of immigrants received needed reassurance from the president that despite chaos in Washington, immigration reform can get done. We commend President Obama for renewing his commitment to passing immigration reform this year and urging Republicans in the House to act quickly. As pointed out by the president our current system, which allows businesses that exploit workers through wage theft, lack of benefits and intimidation, is unfair to all workers and unfair to responsible businesses that play by the rules. Republicans who support business should be able to get behind this.

The legislation passed by the Senate while imperfect aims to solve many of the problems with our current system. And the recent bill introduced by House Democrats is also a step in the right direction. We stand firm in calling for a permanent solution that puts 11 million aspiring Americans on the path to citizenship.

But absent from the president's speech was the mention of our current deportation crisis. Every day more than 1,000 aspiring Americans are deported, mothers and fathers separated from children. While we work toward a long-term solution, we urge the president to put an end to deportations of people who will soon be eligible for the roadmap to citizenship. Ending deportations is the right thing to do as a country that honors families and the quest for the American dream.

Editors' note: Dream Activist issued an urgent call to prevent the deportation of one of the #Dream30 and for all 30 to be allowed to come home to their families. You can make the calls and sign the petition here: http://action.dreamactivist.org/bringthemhome/

Prosecuting JPMorgan Chase a good start, but…

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 14:33:00 +0000

The Obama Justice Department's decision to prosecute and fine the nation's biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase $13 billion for its role in causing the Great Recession is a good start. And so is the Attorney General Eric Holder's ironclad insistence that bank executives could be held criminally liable for the crash, too.

But it's only a start. There's a long way to go. And, unfortunately, the politicians and political appointee "regulators" who enabled the corporate criminals on Wall Street, in hedge funds, and elsewhere to get away with murdering the economy appear to be beyond the law's reach - even though they're as guilty as the financiers, if not more so.

Holder may have taken awhile for his prosecution, but research by several business school professors shows nobody went to jail for financial fraud in the Great Depression, either. Utility magnate Samuel Insull was the most prominent defendant.

But Insull beat all the charges when his lawyers pointed out that at the time of his machinations - pre-New Deal - the moves weren't illegal.

"The government also went after Charles 'Sunshine Charley' Mitchell, president of National City Bank, now Citibank," their article adds. "Mitchell divided National City into a banking arm and an investment arm, with the latter selling up to $2 billion annually in speculative securities and shaky bonds.

Before the Pecora Commission, Mitchell acknowledged he knew his salesmen were pushing bad investments on unsophisticated customers, many of whom borrowed money from his banking arm to finance their investments." Does this sound familiar? It's called bundling subprime mortgages.

"While National City's behavior shocked the nation, the company's salesmen hadn't broken any laws. In a déja vu moment, a Goldman Sachs employee admitted to Congress in April, 2010 that he sold investments that he thought were a 's----y deal.' Mitchell himself resigned his post and was charged with tax evasion for selling company stock to his wife at a loss, but he got off with a fine," their study adds.

The CEO of the New York Stock Exchange later went to jail, nine years after the Depression began and for stealing millions from NYSE's pension fund, not for the speculation and financial finagling his exchange's members perpetrated upon the country before the crash, which began 84 years ago this week, on Oct. 25, 1929.

The prosecutions, or lack of them, in the Great Depression, helped FDR push through the laws, such as the Glass-Steagall Act and the Securities and Exchange Act, designed to help prevent a rerun. So why did we suffer the Great Recession, also known as the Bush Crash? Answer: Because laws were repealed and politicians appointed non-regulators who let the financiers run amok, with our money, again.

And that brings us to the second group of responsible parties for the Great Recession: The politicians and non-regulators.

The 1999 repeal of Glass-Steagall was a joint effort by congressional Democrats and Republicans, led by Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas. Democratic President Bill Clinton signed it. Republican President George W. Bush named heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission with a clear mandate not to regulate the financial finagling.

And Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan looked the other way, at best, or aided and abetted the financiers with his policies, at worst. In recent interviews and his latest book, Greenspan still doesn't realize his role or that he did anything wrong.

The problem with prosecuting Greenspan, Gramm et al is that they all acted "under the color of law," and under laws they enacted or enforced, or didn't enforce. That sounds just like Insull's successful defense.

That's why we say that prosecuting JPMorgan Chase - and, hopefully, other banks and bankers to follow - is a start, but only a start.

The more financial perpetrators who go to jail for all the suffering their machinations caused, the better.

The more of their fines dedicated to making the rest of us who suffered from their corporate criminality at least partially whole, and $4 billion of the Chase fine is earmarked for that, the better.

But prosecuting the enablers who let the financial elite run amok and trash our economy, our jobs, our pensions, our houses and our lives is apparently impossible.

There is one other solution, though, to punish those perpetrators. Find out which of them are still in office or positions of power and eject them, by ballot or by removal. They put us out of jobs, homes, health insurance and pensions. Let's put them out of their jobs, too.

Photo: "I am so damn proud of this company," said JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon after hearing about the $13 billion fine levied against it for crippling the U.S. economy. AP

Hypocrisy red alert: GOP lawmakers probe Obamacare delays!

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 12:46:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Just days after Republicans in Congress shut down the government in the latest in a long string of attempts to kill or cripple the Affordable Care Act, Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee including John Shimkus, R-Il., and Adam Kinzinger, R- Il., are holding a public hearing today on "the failures and issues surrounding the implementation" of the health law.

Shimkus and Kinzinger are only two of many Republicans who ahave already declared the enrollment of people in the health care exchanges a "failure," even though the program has been operative for only 24 days and extension of enrollment from Janurary to the end of March has already been announced.

Some have expressed surprise that long-time opponents of the law are now worrying about the ability of contituents to sign up for it.

Democrats here in Illinois note that neither Shimkus or Kinzinger have offered any type of alternate health care plan, that both have repeatedly blocked funding needed for the ACA's implementation, and that both would allow the insurance companies to go back to denying coverage to millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions and dropping people when they get sick.

"Give me a break," said Brad Woodhouse, president of Americans United for Change, October 24. "It's really rich for Republicans to be shedding crocodile tears over the glitches in the ACA website when they have done nothing for four years but try to impede, repeal, and defund the law and root for its failure. This is pure, craven politics."

Supporters of health care reform also note that the ACA involves a lot more than just signing up on the exchanges. In states that have expanded Medicaid as called for under the law, for example, millions are already getting insurance they would otherwise not have had.

"This is a transparent attempt by Republicans to score political points around road bumps in the health law's implementation and distract from the fact that they just left 120,000 Americans without jobs by shutting down the government in the name of Obamacare. It's not fooling anyone. It takes a lot of nerve," said Woodhouse.

Reps. Shimkus and Kinzinger have opposed the ACA every step of the way, from the first debates in Congress to voting more than 30 times each to repeal the law after it went into effect. Both used their opposition to the law to justify the recent government shutdown.

Photo: AP

Voters cast mail ballots in the Evergreen State

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 17:33:00 +0000

SEATTLE - Washington State voters received their mail ballots last week, their chance to vote on I-522, a statewide ballot measure that would require labeling of all genetically engineered food. It is only one of many sharp, critical battles in this off-year election.

"No Monsanto! Yes I-522!" was the theme of a march by thousands of protesters through downtown Seattle Oct. 12, a day of worldwide protests against the agribusiness giant. Polls have shown strong majority support for I-522 but agribusiness has poured millions of dollars into TV attack ads to defeat it, modeled on their narrow defeat of a similar ballot measure in California.

The Washington State Secretary of State released a list Friday of the corporations that have contributed a combined $7.2 million to defeat I-522. Pepsico, the largest donor, gave $1.6 million followed by Nestle ($1.05 million), Coca Cola ($1.04 million), Hormel, Bunge, and Clorox. Donating through other channels were DuPont ($3.2 million), Dow ($562,000) and BASF ($500,000).

Supporters of I-522 have fought back with TV ads of their own debunking agribusiness fear mongering.

Another crucial election battle is here in Seattle where incumbent Mayor Mike McGinn is in a hard-fought race with Democratic State Sen. Ed Murray, for the mayoralty of the Emerald City. The city of SeaTac, named for the Seattle-Tacoma Airport, has placed on its municipal ballot Proposition #1 to raise the minimum wage for hospitality and airport workers to $15 an hour. Washington State already has the highest minimum wage at $9.19 per hour. Asked about this fight, McGinn replied, "If it's more than $15, I'd support that." Not to be outdone, Murray told a news conference he favors a $15 minimum wage for all Seattle workers.

Both are considered moderately progressive. Murray, the first openly gay member of the Washington State legislature pushed the marriage equality law through the legislature and mobilized to defend the measure when enemies put it on the ballot in 2012.

A major issue in the race is coal. Coal companies want to ship by rail as many as 10 coal trains daily, each more than a mile and a half long, through Seattle to the yet-to-be-built Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point near Bellingham. The coal would be loaded into coal ships and delivered to China and other Asian ports.

McGinn, a former leader of the Sierra Club, has been an organizer of mass rallies at the waterfront in Seattle protesting this scheme on grounds that it will contribute to global warming and further degrade the Pacific Ocean and the ecosystem of the West Coast.

Murray, by contrast, has received contributions from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad. The company stands to reap millions in profits from the coal shipments. Murray was also the beneficiary of a posh fundraiser sponsored by Roger Nyhus whose Seattle public relations firm is promoting the coal export scheme.

Yet opposition is so strong that Murray recently announced that he agrees with McGinn that the coal trains and the coal terminal would be bad for the environment. Sierra Club political action director, Adam Nance, said, "We're glad Sen. Murray has decided to join the conversation about coal. Mayor McGinn has been a powerful leader on this issue since the beginning which is one of the reasons the Sierra Club endorsed him early."

The issue is so hot that the Sierra Club is mobilizing to elect three candidates to the Whatcom County Council (the county which includes Cherry Point) who oppose the coal export scheme or at least favor a full study of its environmental impact. Labor has been split on the issue but recently Jobs with Justice joined in a "Blue-Green" alliance to oppose the plan.

Another critical battle is Democratic Sen. Nathan Schlicher's campaign to win election to the Washington State Senate. Schlicher was appointed to fill the state Senate seat left vacant by Derek Kilmer when he was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2012. The Service Employees International Union, Planned Parenthood and other progressive groups are doorbelling in Bremerton, Port Orchard and Tacoma to help Schlicher, an emergency room physician who has fought for health care benefits for the uninsured. He treats them. His opponent is tea party Republican Jan Angel, who voted in the lower house to criminalize abortions even in the case of rape and incest.

Schlicher's victory will help end de facto Republican control of the Washington State Senate since two renegade Democratic Senators, Rodney Tom of Bellevue and Tim Sheldon of Potlatch, defected and started voting with the Republicans. "If Nathan wins, the Democrats will need a pickup of only one seat in the 2014 election to regain majority control," an aide to Schlicher told this reporter. That would mean the ouster of Tom, Sheldon, or both. They are despised by the labor movement -- and by the majority Democrats -- in their districts.

Photo: Rallying against coal export from Washington State. Sierra Club Cascade Chapter Facebook page.

White House issues update on HealthCare.gov

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 15:57:00 +0000

In response to mounting problems swirling around the Affordable Care Act's new website to buy health insurance, the White House issued an email update announcing "the best and the brightest" in technology are fixing the bugs. The White House said even with the glitches, almost half a million people have applied for health insurance through HealthCare.gov or the individual state sites. The email urged people to utilize the 1-800-318-2596 number for health insurance enrollment.

Here is the full text of the email:

On October 1, even as the federal government was shutting down, HealthCare.gov-the new Health Insurance Marketplace where people can find and apply for affordable health insurance plans as part of Obamacare-opened for business nationwide.

As you may have heard, the website launch hasn't gone nearly as smoothly as it should have. And with nearly 20 million visits to the site in the first several weeks, the problems were aggravated by the website's popularity.

But even in spite of those problems, thousands of Americans are currently signing up and saving money. Nearly half a million Americans have already applied for health insurance through the federal and state Marketplaces. It's not hard to see why: Once people get through the door, they overwhelmingly like the benefits and cost of the products available to them-especially when compared with the discriminatory private market that was previously the only game in town.

Some of the best and brightest are now doing everything they can to fix the site as quickly as possible. People are working overtime, 24/7, and we've brought in some of the best IT experts from across the country to join the team at the federal agency responsible for running the Marketplace. And as President Obama said today, "Nobody's madder than me about the fact that the website isn't working as well as it should, which means it's going to get fixed."

It's also important to remember that the website is not the only way to enroll. You can dial the call center at 1-800-318-2596 and apply directly over the phone. Typically, it takes about 25 minutes for an individual or about 45 for a family. You can also find local "navigators" who can help you enroll in person at LocalHelp.HealthCare.gov.

Learn more about what we're doing to make the site better and enrollment easier.

The president is the first to admit that the website's problems are unacceptable. But Obamacare is more than just a website. Most Americans already have health insurance through their employer, Medicare, or Medicaid, and they don't need to go to the Marketplace for new coverage. Instead, the health care law provides new benefits and increased protection: Young people can stay on their parents' insurance plans until they are 26, seniors are receiving more affordable prescription medicine, and preventive care like mammograms are free.

So while there are major improvements to make on the new website, millions of Americans are already benefiting from the health care law. And we're making sure that those who don't have access to affordable health insurance today can sign up-online, on the phone, and even in person.

Here are some of the things we've done in the meantime to make the process easier. Take a look, and pass this message along to those you know who are trying to sign up for health care:

You can now preview plans and prices available in your area without filling out the online application.

You can find out, with an improved calculator, whether your income and household size may qualify you for lower costs on your monthly premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

You can apply for coverage 4 ways: by phone, online, by mail with a paper application, or with the help of an in-person assister.

Thanks, and stay tuned for more updates.

Jobless rate drops slightly in September

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 15:40:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The U.S. unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percent from August to September, to 7.2 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. A separate BLS survey showed businesses claimed to create a net of 148,000 new jobs last month.

The partial federal shutdown/lockout sent all of the BLS staff home in the first two weeks of October and delayed release of the results. BLS gathered the September data before the lockout. Some 800,000 federal workers were idled when Congress did not pass a money bill to keep agencies open.

Congress refused to pass the money bill until leaders overcame House Republicans' adamant insistence on linking all federal spending to killing the Affordable Care Act, which the GOP insultingly calls "Obamacare."

Without the lockout, the federal government employed 2.13 million workers in September, 7,300 fewer than in August. Government employment rose by 22,000 overall, all due to state and local schools. They added 29,300 jobs combined as the school year began.

Some 11.255 million people were jobless in September, 61,000 fewer than in August. But workforce participation again grew slowly and economists Dean Baker and Elise Gould cited that.

"This continues the pattern we have seen throughout the recovery as the unemployment rate falls mainly because workers leave the labor market," Baker, of the Center for Economic Policy and Research, said.

"The unemployment rate is now down by 2.8 percentage points from its 10 percent peak in October 2009. However, the employment rate is up just 0.4 percentage points from its low point in June 2011."

"This report demonstrates once again we are far from a full recovery," said Gould of the Economic Policy Institute. "September jobs growth was slower than the previous 12-month average of 185,000, making barely a nick in our 8.2 million jobs gap."

Some 4.15 million of the jobless (36.9 percent) have been out of work at least six months, meaning that in many cases they've exhausted their first level of jobless benefits. That's down 1 percent from the month before. And almost one of every seven (13.6 percent) of all workers in September were unemployed, underemployed or had gotten so discouraged they stopped seeking work. That's down from 13.7 percent in August.

Factory owners said they added 2,000 jobs in September, to 11.963 million. Gains in fabricated metal products (+6,300) and machinery (+4,900) offset losses elsewhere. That left 1.093 million (6.9 percent) of factory workers jobless.

After six months with little or no gains, construction companies finally added 20,000 jobs from August to September, to 5.83 million. Half the gains were in specialty trade contractors. But that still left 697,000 (8.5 percent) jobless construction workers. Construction union leaders say the federal data understate joblessness in their sector.

Service firms claimed to add a net of 100,000 jobs from August to September, to 95.74 million, but most were in low-paying occupations. Leading job adders there were retail trade (+20,800), temps (+20,200) and health care (+13,700). The one high-paying exception was in mass transit and ground transportation. Firms and transit agencies said they added 17,900 jobs, to 465,000.

Photo: Registered nurse Salanda Bowman, left, talks with part-time Kentucky Wesleyan College student Jason Ward, of Whitesville, about job openings at the Owensboro Health Regional Hospital during a Regional Career and Job Fair in the Owensboro Sports Center in Owensboro, Ky. on Oct. 1. The U.S. economy added just 148,000 jobs in September, suggesting that employers held back on hiring before a 16-day partial government shutdown began Oct. 1. (AP/The Messenger-Inquirer/Gary Emord-Netzley/File)