People Before Profit blog

Texas labor ends early voting with style

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:00:00 +0000

DALLAS - An October 28 rally at the Teachers Hall wrapped up a very successful early voting period. The president of the Alliance for Retired Americans, Barbara Easterling, came from Washington to introduce labor's own candidate for lieutenant governor, Linda Chavez-Thompson. Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller, Financial Secretary John Patrick, and union leaders from all over north Texas came to honor their candidates and buckle down for the final five election days.

Easterling brought a letter pledging support to the Chavez-Thompson campaign. She talked about Chavez-Thompson's tenure as executive vice president of the AFL-CIO and the debt that all American working people owe her. President Moeller congratulated all the unionists on a record-smashing early voting period.

Estimates of early voter turnout ran as high as 200% over the last mid-term election in 2006. Houston claimed the turnout is as much as 300% higher. Unionists made personal visits to their members every weekend of the campaign and telephone banking occurred at least five nights per week. Every union member in key Dallas County areas received at least one visit and one phone call.

Chavez-Thompson gave a rousing talk in English, then began over again in Spanish for the television audience. She stressed the growing importance of Latino voters. Dr Elba Garcia, a candidate for county commissioner, also spoke in both languages, as did state representative Roberto Alonzo. Alonzo said that the population of Texas had increased by 4 million in the past ten years, with 3.2 million of them Spanish-speaking.

The big increase since the last census, Alonzo said, meant that Texas would gain four new seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. The party that would take most of those seats would be determined to a large extent by redistricting, which is dominated by the Texas House. Every speaker urged an enthusiastic final effort on election day.

Photo: Jim Lane Judy Bryant of AFT; Marty Alvarado, campaign manager and sister of Linda Chavez-Thompson, Linda Chavez-Thompson, Barbara Easterling of Alliance for Retired Americans; Gwen Dunivent, President of Dallas AFL-CIO; and Becky Moeller, President of the Texas AFL-CIO.

New York poised to reject tea party Paladino

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:52:00 +0000

NEW YORK — With the election just a few days away, New York voters are expected to reject tea party candidate Carl Paladino, the Buffalo businessman on the Republican ticket, by an overwhelming majority. Paladino's hate speech and fear mongering, as well as his threats of violence against legislators, are not resonating with New York State voters.

Democrat Andrew Cuomo, widely seen by the electorate as a much better choice, is running significantly ahead.

At the same time, Cuomo has taken pains to show his "independence from labor." He recently told the New York Times: "We've seen the same play run for 10 years. The governor announces the budget, unions come together, put $10 million in a bank account, run television ads against the governor. The governor's popularity drops; the governor's knees weaken; the governor falls to one knee, collapses, makes a deal."

In this state, the Working Families Party is considered by labor and other progressives to be a real alternative. Given that New York allows "fusion voting," candidates can run on several lines. Cuomo is running on those of the Democratic and Working Families Party.

"There is a way to let Cuomo know you want him to be serious," WFP Executive Director Dan Cantor said. "And that is to cast your vote for him and to cast it on the Working Families Party line."

Cantor, like others, argued that there is some meaningful difference between Paladino and Cuomo. The Republican candidate, Cantor said, "has a plan for transit: 20 percent cuts. He wants to cut the 2 line, the 3 line, the 4 line, 5 line. I'm not sure what lines he wants to leave."

"Andrew Cuomo," he said, "has a better position, but far from perfect."

Asked by peoplesworld.org, why people should vote for Cuomo on WFP's line and not for a third candidate, Cantor argued that it is important for progressives to have some influence over Cuomo, and, further, to make political change, strong organization is necessary.

"The WFP is well organized and we depend on voters to support us on Election Day," he said, "so that we're able to take those votes and convert them into policy gains for working-class people."

Cantor's logic has been proven in practice. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg received a large number of votes on the far-right Independence Party's line when he ran for re-election as mayor. Consequently, the mayor, who is overall a moderate right winger, was forced to sync some of his policies with those of Independence. While that party, whose strength comes from its huge financial coffers, is far different from the WFP, which bases its strength on organizing, supporters hope that the WFP will be able to exert the same kind of influence on Cuomo.

Despite his rhetoric on labor, Democrats point out the differences between Cuomo and Paladino. Cuomo said in The Times interview that he would retool the state's education spending formula. Right now, a disproportionate amount of spending goes towards "politically powerful" suburban schools. The Democratic candidate said that he would redirect aid to those needing it most -- the state's struggling rural and urban school districts.

On other issues, Cuomo takes much better positions than Paladino. For example, he supports gay marriage.

Public workers have been under attack for years, but within the past few months, the tabloid press has redoubled its efforts to demonize them. Many have suggested that Cuomo is simply "talking tough" so that the average voter will not associate him with such a widely disparaged group.

However, the hundreds of thousands of union workers themselves consider this dangerous talk. Some have become worried this heightened rhetoric could lead to infighting between labor voters and sections in and out of the Democratic Party.

And unity is a big issue, says the Rev. Al Sharpton. "One of the things that we are always doing is getting so caught up in our infighting that our enemies win.

"I'll tell you something," Sharpton continued, "Wall Street and the business interests; they compete like thieves - usually because many of them are - but they all come together to protect common interests"

Photo: Woman holds a Working Families Party sign. The WFP has been part of the fight against transit fare hikes. Jason Kuffer // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Town hall meet calls for U.S. manufacturing strategy

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:46:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS - "We have to make manufacturing a priority again," Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., told over 250 union members, community activists and students here at a town-hall style meeting sponsored by the Alliance for American Manufacturing.

The AAM is a non-partisan partnership of U.S. manufacturers and the United Steelworkers Union active in 22 states. Their plan for rebuilding America's manufacturing base include: expanding production, hiring and capital expenditures, investing in U.S. infrastructure, retraining the American workforce, strengthening and enforcing trade laws that benefit U.S. manufacturing and rebuilding the "innovation base."

"We need a manufacturing agenda," Carnahan continued. "This is about our economic self-interests."

The town hall was just north of the now-closed Chrysler, General Motors and Ford plants, west of the now-closed Granite City Steel plant, and south of the Boeing plant - which is still open.

Ten years ago 364,900 Missourians worked in manufacturing. Today only about 250,000 do.

Nationwide, in the past ten years over 5.5 million jobs have been lost in manufacturing and over 50,000 manufacturing facilities have been closed.

AAM executive director Scott Paul noted, "Manufacturing currently employees about 12 million people nationwide." However, he added, it creates an additional 8 million jobs in other industries.

"Manufacturing has the highest multiplier effect and pays better than other sectors of the economy," he added.

In fact, workers in manufacturing make on average about 22 percent more than their counterparts in other industries, and, due to high union density, receive better health care, pension and vacation packages.

According to Scott Paul, "78 percent of Americans support a national manufacturing strategy and 89 percent want a buy-American policy."

"Manufacturing gives people hope, skills and opportunity," Paul concluded.

"This isn't just about workers in the manufacturing industries," Don Giljum, Operating Engineers' Union Local 148, told the World. "This is about tax base and revenue for state and city budgets. This is about the mom-and-pop restaurants, bars, bowling allies and hardware stores where people spend their hard-earned money. This is about the American dream."

"Without good-paying manufacturing jobs our infrastructure will crumble," he concluded.

Dan Sinclair, who runs a local buy-union, buy-American car dealership, couldn't agree more, and added a partial solution: "If you want to stop good paying manufacturing jobs from leaving our country then stop buying things made overseas."

"Every day you have the opportunity to buy 10 or 12 American made products," Sinclair added.

Rev. Charles Burton, president of the United Congregations of Metro East, echoed Sinclair's comments and said, "This isn't about China or India. This is about supporting our own. This isn't racist. We don't want to demonize others. We just want to take care of our own."

"With the mid-term elections just days away we need to vote for those candidates that support a national manufacturing strategy, buy-American policies and good paying union jobs," said Giljum.

Photo: From left: Bob Farrar, president of Lunar Tool; intellectual-rights attorney James Wiley; auto dealer Dan Sinclair, and Rev. Charles K. Burton. At far right is moderator, Alliance for American Manufacturing Executive Director Scott Paul. Kevin Madden/St. Louis Labor Tribune

Where is the “change?”

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:57:00 +0000

“Where is the change in the promise of ‘change’?”

Heard it before?

Perhaps from a little voice occasionally gnawing at you?

Let’s zero in on one aspect of the many-sided, all-important jobs question.

I realize the future of my now-adult children and my grandchildren depends on the future of all children in the human family.

Nothing worries me more and, at the same time, fills me with more hope than what the future on earth holds for them.

The conflicted musings of grandpa gone nuts? I don’t think so.

But you decide.

Consider what congressional candidate David Harmer told his Tea Party admirers: “Nowhere [in the Constitution] will you see the power to regulate carbon dioxide, what we exhale.”

After the laughs and giggles subsided, the Republican candidate in California’s 11th Congressional District declared he did not “believe” in global warming.

Let’s match this up with the observations of James Hansen, a preeminent scientist on global warming.

“Climate is nearing dangerous tipping points,” James Hansen warned two years ago. “Elements of a ‘perfect storm,’ a global cataclysm, are assembled.”

More recently, Hansen said, “Our fossil fuel addiction, if unabated, threatens our children and grandchildren, and most species on the planet.”

Nineteen of 20 Republican Senate candidates in contested races, along with a large majority of House Republican candidates backed by the Tea Party, question the science of global warming and oppose legislation to deal with it, a National Journal survey found.

Since the beginning of 2009, the oil, coal and utility industries have spent $500 million to lobby against legislation to deal with climate change and to defeat Democratic candidates who support it, the Center for American Progress Action Fund revealed.

With the aid of Republicans and a few conservative Democrats in Congress, these corporations earlier this year killed legislative efforts to address the global warming issue.

While remedies they propose vary from cosmetic to fundamental, Democrats do accept the widely-held scientific estimates about the dangers of global warming.

President Obama and Democrats generally subscribe to solutions that will result in creating “green” jobs – which leads us back to the “jobs” question.

Parroting oil company arguments, Republicans claim moving to a green economy during this time of high unemployment will make a bad situation worse.

But again, scientific studies show this is precisely the time to move aggressively from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources, as a main way to revive the economy and create millions of jobs.

The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of union, environmental and business groups, recently released a new national study showing that a $40 billion investment in clean transit and vehicle manufacturing will create 3.7 million direct and indirect jobs – 600,000 alone in the manufacturing sector in six years.

If Democrats increase their majorities in both houses of Congress, this issue will be very much in play, as will the fight over superficial versus more basic solutions.

But, if Republicans take control of the House and increase their Senate numbers, the issue of global warming and green energy jobs will be dead in Congress, period!

Which brings us back to the question: What’s in store for us and our loved ones, and future generations?

The billions of years that it took earth to generate life, eventually human life and then civilization could be blown away in less than a person’s lifetime.

Perhaps that’s too terrifying to contemplate, no matter how likely it is to unfold IF the Republicans win in November and in the 2012 presidential elections.

With a few days left until Nov. 2, that IF depends on each one of us taking the time to cast our vote and making sure everyone around us does the same!

This painful stage in our nation’s life is also pregnant with new hope born of struggle by working people in our country and all over the globe.

Just a few years ago, I would never have imagined I would see our nation’s first African American president brought into office by a grand multiracial coalition including millions of our white compatriots.

Make no mistake, the racist attacks on our president by Republican candidates and Tea party activists are a desperate move orchestrated by a tiny far-right minority – the magnates of the oil, banking, insurance and military industries, among others – intent on turning back the clock of history.

It nearly brought tears to my eyes to see a magnificently diverse and united coalition unfolding under the banner of “One Nation, Working Together,” as nearly 200,000 followers gathered in our nation’s capital Oct. 2.

The change we all seek is not vested on one individual or political party – it is vested in every single one of us doing our part, no matter how insignificant it might appear at first sight.

Let us recall the remarks of the noted scientist Hansen on the eve of the 2008 presidential elections.

“The election is critical for the planet.

“If Americans turn out to pasture the most brontosaurian [dinosaur-like] congressmen, if Washington adapts to address climate change, our children and grandchildren can still hold great expectations.

“Solution of the climate problem requires that we move to carbon-free energy promptly!”

Photo by Takver, courtesy Flickr, cc by 2.0

90,000 union members hit the street in final election push

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:14:00 +0000

Breaking all records for labor participation in mid-term election efforts, 90,000 union members will campaign during the final four days before Election Day, Nov. 2, out of 1,200 staging areas across the nation.

Beginning Friday, Oct. 29 and ending Tuesday, just before polls close, they will make 5.6 million phone calls, knock on 4.1 million doors and pass out 1.9 million flyers.

The AFL-CIO says that the massive push will, in effect, build a "firewall" that will hold the line on expected Republican gains and allow Democrats to retain control of both houses of Congress.

"One-on-one grassroots contact will be the key for this election," declared AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman. "Union families trust and rely on the information their union provides and it cuts through the noise of unprecedented corporate cash being spent on false ads."

If the labor movement achieves its goal this weekend, a wrench will have been thrown into wheels already set in motion by people like GOP Rep. Davis Camp, who would, if Republicans take over Congress, become chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Corporate lobbyists have already been camping out in his office with instructions on how he should rewrite tax laws.

The "final four" push by the labor movement builds on what has already been the largest mid-term election effort ever by the country's unions. The immense Labor 2010 grassroots persuasion program involved 200,000 union volunteers who reached 17 million union voters in 26 states.

They made 23.6 million phone calls, handed out 17.5 million flyers at workplaces, knocked on over 1.3 million doors and sent 18.6 million pieces of mail.

"This resulted," said Ackerman, "in an increase in the generic congressional ballot among union members from plus 8 points to plus 25 points for the Democrats and doubling the lead for the Democratic Senate candidates among union members."

Labor's efforts fit into a broader campaign effort. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reports ground operations in over 65 congressional districts and Organizing for America, the successor organization to the Obama campaign, is integrated into state party operations around the country. They also have been knocking on doors, calling voters and sending out mailings.

There has been a strong focus on African American voters, with more of them having been contacted in September than during the entire 2006 midterm elections.

The Republican get-out-the-vote effort, by most reports, is not as strong. GOP congressional staffers are being required to go out into the districts to try to match Democratic Party and union ground troops.

While there are a big number of House Democrats fighting off strong GOP challenges, many who were extremely vulnerable before the boots were put on the ground are now running very close races. CBS reported in the final weeks that even Democrats in conservative districts that the GOP should win are doing pretty well. Patrick Murphy in Pennsylvania and Dina Titus in Nevada, both of whom should, by conventional wisdom be far behind, are now deadlocked with their GOP opponents. What the CBS report did not say is that unions have been active in both those races.

The fact that the Democratic Senate candidates in Pennsylvania and Illinois are closing strong is also attributed, in large part, to labor's ground game.

"This election is as important as anything we did two years ago," President Obama told thousands of union activists on a teleconference call Oct. 26. "The labor program you guys have put into place is the backbone of the program."

It's not just the members of the country's unions who are mobilizing the last four days of the campaign. The AFL-CIO's top officials are fanning out for a series of get-out-the-vote events, concentrating on Midwestern states where there are hotly contested Senate and gubernatorial races.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will spend Oct. 29 in Chicago, leafleting work sites and phone banking, and Oct. 30 through Election Day in Pennsylvania with Rep. Joe Sestak.

AFL-CIO Secretary Liz Shuler will phone bank Oct. 29 in Louisville, Ky., Oct. 30 in Colorado and will spend Nov. 1 and 2 in Illinois.

Arlene Holt-Baker, the federation's Executive Vice President, will spend the last four days of the campaign in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Connecticut.

Image: Darren J. Ryan AFL-CIO // CC BY 2.0

Bill Clinton: youth, student vote is critical

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:47:00 +0000

CHICAGO-If African Americans, Latinos, first time voters and students defy predictions and vote in large numbers November 2, Democrats can prevent a Republican takeover of Congress. So said former President Bill Clinton at a jammed get-out-the-vote rally here Oct. 26.

With races across the country, including key U.S. Senate and governor's races in Illinois as tossups, voter turnout is key and that appears to be happening across the board. Clinton said this is essential because pollsters insist that while Republicans will turn out, "the Hispanic (voter turnout) will go down 35 percent, the African-American total will go down 40 percent, and the youth vote will drop 55 percent."

Clinton said the election offered a clear choice for voters: the path being pursued by Pres. Obama and the Democrats of green jobs creation, financial and health care reform or the one being advocated by the Republican Pledge to America - to go back to the failed Bush policies.

Many of the accomplishments of the Obama administration and Democratic Congress, passed in the face of total Republican obstruction, are not known widely to the American people and it is the job of grassroots activists to spread the word before Nov. 2 so the victories can be defended.

In particular, Clinton said Congress had passed the most significant student financial aid legislation in his lifetime. The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act was passed as part of the health care reform last spring.

The legislation was the single largest investment in aid to help students and families pay for college in history. It ended the role of private lenders in the federal student loan program. As "middlemen," private lenders had been ripping off $60 billion in profits from the program. $40 billion of these savings will go back into increasing Pell Grants.

The legislation also boosted aid to community colleges, historically black colleges and universities and schools with predominantly Latino student populations.

Not only did Republicans oppose the legislation in lockstep, but if they gain a majority, they vow to repeal it. "All you have to do is follow the money," said Clinton.

Clinton blasted the tens of millions being put in the campaign by anonymous donors to fund non stop television ads and a Republican GOTV effort. In Illinois alone, $10 million has flooded the Senate race to aid Republican Mark Kirk.

The big private financial aid lenders are among the anonymous donors. "Their big donations are a down payment to get that $60 billion back," he said.

"College students, not 20 percent of them know what's in that student bill and not 20 percent of that 20 percent know Republicans have promised to repeal it," Clinton said. "I want you to get on Facebook, get on YouTube, Twitter, do all that stuff you're supposed to do, social networking. ... If every young person who voted in 2008 knew about this student loan issue ... every person on this stage would be elected a week from today."

Clinton said the reform not only saves $60 billion. It provides students with a way to pay back their loans so they never have to pay more than 10% of their income. He said high tuition costs and student debts were forcing students out of college. The Republican proposals make no sense to future economic development.

In addition the Pledge to America seeks to cut financial aid to 8 million students and eliminate 200,000 children from early childhood education programs like Head Start.

Mobilization of youth and first time voters is ramping up. Not only has Pres. Obama made personal appeals to youth both in a mass rally at the University of Madison - Wisconsin, but also with a youth town all meeting broadcast simultaneously on MTV and BET. In addition American Rights at Work has teamed up with Respect My Vote 2010 to reach young voters. Respect is a coalition of groups including the Hip Hop Caucus and Rock the Vote.

On Oct. 26, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) used mobile billboards, new media, and face-to-face contact to get young voters in Chicago's South Loop, home to thousands of university students, to pledge to cast a ballot this year.

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/neontommy/4408168698/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Tea party failing to match labor's ground game

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:30:00 +0000

Republicans are showing signs of weakness.

In the last week before the election, when get-out-the vote efforts become job number one for candidates, that party has begun to falter.

Despite the undeniable superiority of the multi-million dollar "air war" waged on their behalf by a combination of the nation's largest corporations and secret sources, both foreign and domestic, their support may be waning as things come down to the wire.

For starters, there are real questions being raised now about whether the tea party has what it takes to actually get out the vote.

"The push to get the nation's conservative voters to the polls is fractured and untested, with some 'tea party' activists refusing to cooperate with more mainstream Republicans, in contrast with the unified and well-organized parallel effort by unions and Democrats," read a report in the Los Angeles Times, Oct. 25.

Brendan Steinhauser, director of state and federal campaigns at the right-wing Freedom Works, admitted to splits on the right but said they were an "advantage" in recruiting new activists. "A lot of people don't want to work with the Republican Party, for the most part," he said. "They like the candidate, but they don't want to go to GOP headquarters. They'll work with us."

In a Florida Senate campaign debate Oct. 26, none of the candidates seemed to want anything to do with Republicans. The Democrat, Kendrick Meeks, strongly backed a vigorous role for government in job creation and the former GOP governor-turned- independent, Charlie Crist, condemned the "hard right turn the Republican Party has taken." He defended the president's stimulus program and backed economic positions taken by Paul Krugman, the liberal economist.

Marco Rubio, the GOP candidate, surprised everyone by distancing himself from both the Republican Party and the tea party. The tea party had backed him in the GOP primaries. He said that, unlike other tea partiers, he was opposed to privatizing Social Security.

"There is a sense now that Republicans may not be able to capitalize on the backlash against President Obama and the Democrats because they lack the well-organized voter ID and get-out-the-vote effort that they had in the past," said Lawrence Jacobs, a University of Minnesota political scientist.

Supporting that opinion are some obvious shifts by the right during the last week of the campaign to pay more attention to the ground game they have thus far de-emphasized in favor of media blitzes.

Karl Rove's American Crossroads, on Oct. 25, decided to quickly pump $10 million into what it says will be "get-out-the-vote" efforts while, on the same day, the ultra-right Americans for Prosperity spent $17 million to quickly open "field offices" in 12 states. There are reports that the "field offices" are primarily staffed by people shipped in from outside areas.

As divisions and problems with ground operations surface on the right, labor's voter turnout efforts appear to be getting stronger by the day.

Unable to afford the expensive TV ad campaigns, labor has devoted its budgets to a less visible but often more effective approach - building a machine that can turn out sympathetic voters. Unions are emphasizing personal voter contact to win the close congressional races happening across the country.

In Pennsylvania last week, as he did at a union phone bank in Illinois three weeks earlier, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said his federation was contacting every union member in the state 25 times with mail, phone calls and personal visits.

In perhaps the most sophisticated labor mailing ever, 10 million union members received personalized letters this week warning that if Republicans take over Congress they will privatize Social Security, cut off unemployment benefits extensions and let health insurance companies gut health care.

Indication that all of this may be paying off for Democrats came Oct. 27 with the release of the latest Newsweek generic ballot poll that has Democrats in the lead now, 48 to 42 percent. The same poll showed President Obama's approval rating jumping to 54 percent. Those disapproving of his performance numbered 40 percent, the lowest since February, 2010.

This is not a national race, however, so Republicans can still hold advantages in individual races. Still, Democrats are gaining traction on the ground as well. In Ohio, for example, the Democratic candidate for governor has caught up to the Republican, erasing a ten-point lead. Also, some other recent polls show the Republicans still in the lead. Nonetheless, the Newsweek poll does represent a change in the Democrats' favor.

Those results, on top of an AP poll a day earlier showing that one third of all voters still haven't made up their minds suggest that the progressive base may be firing up big time.

Image: Hopeful signs for progressive Steve Rhodes // CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Supporting immigrants' rights is not political suicide

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:54:00 +0000

The Republican Party is spouting vile hatred for immigrants, especially those who have dark skins but don't have papers. The punditry would have us believe that supporting rights for immigrants is “political suicide” in this election year.

One hundred and three members of the House of Representatives, all Democrats, are signed on as cosponsors of HR 4321, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform ASAP bill, whose chief sponsor is Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, and which is supported by most of organized labor and immigrants' rights organizations. (You can look up this or any other bill in Congress online).

By sticking their necks out for immigration reform, have these 103 valiant souls committed “political suicide?”

A good resource for following these things is the Cook Political Report. It rates all the House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates in terms of the probability of winning their elections. Look at the “Competitive House Race Chart” on that website, and you will see that of currently Democratic seats that are likely to be lost to Republicans (in Cook's “lean Republican” and “likely Republican” columns) there is not one single seat that now belongs to one of the cosponsors of HR 4321. There are a total of five Democrats in the “likely Republican” column, and 17 in the “lean Republican” columns.

If you look at current Democrat held seats rated by Cook as toss-ups (could as easily go either to the Democrat or the Republican), you will see that three of the cosponsors of HR 4321 are in this category: Most important is Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz. He is indeed an outstanding legislator on this and many other topics, including labor, environmental and foreign policy issues. The other two are Reps. John Salazar, D-Colo., and Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas. This is out of 46 Democrats in that category.

In the “lean Democratic” column, which means the Democrat is slightly favored but by no means secure, there are four endangered seats: Those of Reps. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., an open seat in Rhode Island's 1st District. This is out of 28 Democratic seats in that column.

Finally, there is the “likely Democratic” column. These are seats that will probably go to the Democrat, but special circumstances could change that. This column includes Reps. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, Barney Frank, D-Mass., Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., and Solomon Ortiz (the bill's main sponsor), D-Texas.

All the rest of the bill's cosponsors, 93 in all (five of whom are non-voting representatives of U.S. territories, so let's say 88) are considered to be occupying safe seats. Eighty-eight safe seats to 10 that are likely or leaning Republican, toss-ups, or likely or leaning Democratic.

And many Democrats who have avoided the issue of immigrants' rights like the plague are doing poorly. Several of them are in the “likely Republican” and “lean Republican” columns.

Now, we can't jump to the conclusion that Democrats who are doing poorly are suffering for their bad records on immigrants' rights, and those who are doing well are being rewarded for their support for immigrants' rights. A lot depends, for example, on the demographics and ideological makeup of the inhabitants of the congressional district in question, and the state of the political debate on many other issues. In Virginia, the two Democratic Congressmen who are co-sponsoring HR 4321, Reps. James Moran, D-Va. and Bobby Scott, D-Va., would probably have safe seats anyway, as they represent multiracial and multiethnic urban concentrations with a strong working-class presence. And some of the Democrats in conservative areas would be in trouble no matter what their position on immigration.

But we can conclude that the issue is not necessarily a career killer for those politicians who have a good record and a well-organized electoral operation. Taking a principled stand may lose you certain votes, but it will likely win you others.

It is extremely important for the immigrants' rights movement that any Republican gains be kept to a minimum or stopped, and that they not be allowed to take over either the House or the Senate. If that happens, the door will be opened to the advancement of all kinds of anti-immigrant legislation which has not advanced under the present Congress. Although pro-immigrant legislation has also not succeeded over the last couple of years, a Republican takeover of the leadership and committee chairmanships of House and Senate would stop any advancement of immigrant-friendly legislation.

It is also very important, as a practical matter and also one of honor, that those members of Congress who have worked hard for immigration reform, such as Grijalva of Arizona, receive maximum support.

Photo: New Yorkers rally for comprehensive immigration reform. (By Boss Tweed, courtesy Flickr, cc by 2.0)

Feds push to cut deadly coal dust by half

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:35:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (PAI) - In a decision the United Mine Workers hailed as "a tremendous step forward," the Mine Safety and Health Administration wants to cut coal miners' exposure to lethal coal mine dust in half.

Under its proposed rule, published Oct. 19, a miner could be subjected to no more than 1 milligram of coal dust per cubic meter of air, starting 24 months after the rule becomes final. The prior months would be a phase-in period, MSHA said.

Democratic President Barack Obama's projected budget for the year that began Oct. 1 projected federal spending of $512 million for black lung benefits. The government runs the program and the coal companies are taxed per ton to pay for it.

"In the 21st century, workers should not have to risk illness or death in order to provide for their families, yet more than 10,000 miners with black lung disease have died in the last decade alone. This rule will provide today's miners with long-overdue protections against needless threats to their health," Vice President Joseph Biden said.

"Prolonged exposure to coal dust can cause coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP), commonly referred to as black lung, which leads to serious pulmonary problems and, in the worst cases, death. Although long recognized as a serious but preventable risk, incidents of black lung are actually on the rise," MSHA said. Cases are rising.

"The proposed regulations...will, if followed by the mine operators and enforced by the agency, be a tremendous step forward for coal miners' long-term health," Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts said.

"We have long known the only way to prevent black lung is to reduce miners' exposure to respirable coal dust. We have the technology and the means to do that. The only thing we have lacked - until now - was a determination by MSHA that this was a problem which needed to be addressed.

Roberts put the blame for the problem on the coal companies, saying that "health consequences for those who spent a lifetime in the nation's coal mines were of no consequence to their employers." As a result, 100,000 coal miners have died in the last century from black lung, he said. "This rule, once implemented and enforced, will move us yet one more step away from that shameful past," Roberts stated.

MSHA first proposed cutting the black lung exposure standard in half in the 1990s. The agency said the new rule "would prevent more than 2,800 cases of CWP, almost 800 cases of progressive massive fibrosis (a progressive form of CWP), almost 700 cases of severe emphysema, and 131 deaths from non-malignant respiratory disease, all over a 45-year work life."

Image: Open coal mine Iain Thompson // CC BY-SA 2.0

Rally demands justice in Oscar Grant murder case

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:31:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. - Nearly two years after his death, Oscar Grant III, the unarmed 22-year-old African American man shot in the back by a policeman while he lay face down on a train platform early New Years Day 2009, continues to play an important role in the struggle to end police brutality.

Hundreds of union and community supporters of justice for Grant rallied outside City Hall Oct. 23, to demand the maximum sentence for Grant's killer, Johannes Mehserle. The former Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Grant's death and is to be sentenced Nov. 5 in Los Angeles, where his trial took place in June. He faces a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

Along with signs proclaiming, "We are all Oscar Grant," placards and banners with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's motto - "An injury to one is an injury to all" - were prominent among the crowd.

The rally was organized by ILWU Longshore Local 10, which represents workers at all Bay Area ports. The union rescheduled to Oct. 23 the monthly "stop work" meeting in its contract, shutting down the ports, including the Port of Oakland - the nation's fourth largest - for the day. With Saturday usually a busy cargo day, the local said, many workers gave up the time-and-a-half they would have been paid for the shift.

Addressing the crowd, Local 10 President Richard Mead recalled that the ILWU was founded after two of its members were killed by police who were never identified or tried. Their funeral, and the general strike that followed, "helped change this country for the better," Mead said. "It's murder, this is a call for justice, but it has to be more than that."

One concern Mead expressed is that while over half Oakland's city budget goes to fund police, more than 80 percent of Oakland police don't live in the city.

That was also a concern for members of the Black Organizing Project, which is working to build a powerful African American collective to address urgent issues facing the community.

"How can people's lives be worth anything if we can be killed with impunity?" asked BOP member Michael Johnson. Besides requiring Oakland police to live in the city, Johnson called for making police accountable through creating "a powerful community committee with powers to discipline" abusive police officers.

Johnson emphasized that while Grant's murder had "galvanized us," the organization is engaged with many broad community issues. Fellow BOP member Ifonia Gelin pointed out that BOP's issues include the need for good education, well-paying and stable jobs, quality affordable health care and affordable housing.

A moving part of the program was the participation by Oscar Grant's family, including his fiancée, Sophina Mesa, and his now six-year-old daughter, Tatiana Grant, who briefly greeted the crowd. Also addressing the rally were attorney John Burris, who represents the family in damage suits against BART, as well as Grant's uncle, Cephus Johnson, and family friend Jack Bryson, whose two sons were on the platform with Grant the night of the murder.

Among rally endorsers were the San Francisco and Alameda Labor Councils and a number of unions.

With an eye to the fringe elements that committed significant vandalism at earlier protests, speakers emphasized the importance of keeping demonstrations peaceful - which Saturday's rally certainly was.

Photo: Marilyn Bechtel

Jimmy John workers still fighting despite vote setback

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:48:00 +0000

The organizing drive at fast-food chain Jimmy John's in Minneapolis suffered a setback when the union lost in a razor thin 85-87 vote, October 22.

Organizing is a challenge for Jimmy John's workers. Most workers are under thirty and don't view their jobs as permanent, the monthly workforce turnover is about fifty percent, and only 1.8 percent of fast-food workers are unionized. But the bad economy means more workers are locked into this industry, and the conditions at Jimmy John's - minimum wage, few hours, no benefits - give them every reason to fight back.

The workers joined up to build their Jimmy John's Workers Union. They demanded fair wages, job security, guaranteed hours, sick days, an end to sexual harassment in the workplace, and respect. "We're tired of getting treated like garbage. We don't get paid well, and we get horrible hours," said Jen Thompson, sandwich-maker and mother of two.

The Jimmy John's ownership responded with full force. They hired union-busting firm Labor Relations Institute, Inc., and held captive audience meetings to scare workers. Workers allege illegal intimidation and threats of retaliation.

Following the fashion of the rabid right wing, F. Vincent Vernuccio, formerly a Department of Labor official under George W. Bush and now a "labor consultant," wrote on the eve of the election that the union was "an avowed communist organization" and said of the vote, "Workers will have the choice to vote for capitalism or communism." Showing supreme attentiveness to the workers' grievances, he called their chosen fight back method "a bad joke," and after writing out what he called "an economics 101 lesson" for them to explain why their bare-bones compensation and poor conditions were necessary, warned that they "may indeed organize themselves out of a job."

According to the eatery's corporate website, the average franchise shop makes yearly profits of $264,270, on investment capital of between $305,500 and $460,500. MikLin Enterprises, owner of the Minneapolis Jimmy John's franchises, had no problem shelling out over $84,500 - around $1,000 per 'no' vote - on their anti-union campaign.

The vote defeat is not the end for the unionization drive. "We are extremely disappointed with the company's conduct in this matter; rather then letting simply letting us vote, management chose to break the law repeatedly during the last six weeks ... We do not recognize these election results as legitimate and will continue to fight for our demands," said worker Erik Forman. The workers have charged MikLin with 22 violations of the National Labor Relations Act.

Ayo Collins, delivery driver, says the union "hasn't put all their eggs in one basket" and has multiple avenues of action still open to them. "This is just the beginning of the fight," said Collins.

Image: Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 3.0CC BY-SA 3.0

Tucson: Arizona elections heat up

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:40:00 +0000

The news that Rep. Raul Grijalva, co-chair of the Hispanic Caucus in the U.S. Congress, is now in a tighter race than expected has jolted working-class and progressive forces into action. Money is pouring in, while hundreds of volunteers are knocking on doors and making thousands of phone calls. This time not only local supporters, but also busloads of volunteers, are coming in from Phoenix and even from California to help the campaign.

Grijalva's 2010 campaign is now looking less like recent contests and more like the 2002 primary elections when Grijalva, aided by an army of 650 volunteers, routed seven other candidates for the Democratic nomination. For the first time ever, the Southern Arizona Chicano community is represented in Congress by one of their own. Phoenix's Rep. Ed Pastor is the only other Latino ever to be elected to Congress from Arizona.

A majority are expected to vote by mail.

Phone calls escalated as soon as the ballots were mailed to voters, and now with only a week remaining, the calls will concentrate on those who have yet to vote.

As in previous elections, the strategy is to get a massive voter turnout that will not only re-elect Grijalva, but also help benefit other Democratic candidates, especially Attorney General Terry Goddard who is challenging ultra-right governor Jan Brewer.

The governor's race is critical for progressives here because they hope to have an executive branch of government in Arizona that can counter what they see as an increasingly right-wing and racist legislative branch.

When Janet Napolitano, herself not considered a strong progressive in many areas, left to join President Obama's cabinet trouble for progressives intensified.

With Brewer at the helm public education is now on the chopping block, children stand to lose health care coverage, ethnic studies may be outlawed, and then there's the infamous SB1070, the most draconian anti-immigrant law in the country.

In addition to these problems, the legislature placed a long list of propositions on the ballot that will abolish any remaining affirmative action programs, sabotage federal health care legislation, and prevent the Employee Free Choice Act from being enforced in Arizona, just to name a few.

Most of Arizona's other Congressional races are also too close to call. Liberal Democratic Rep. Ed Pastor is likely to keep his CD-4 seat but Arizona's three other Democrats, who are "centrists," are facing stiff right-wing challenges. In CD-3 Democrat Jon Hulburd is locked in a close race for an open seat with Ben Quayle, son of the former vice President.

Republican Senator John McCain appears likely to be re-elected.

Arizona's labor movement has geared up its "Labor to Labor" outreach to voters with a massive door-to-door campaign targeting all union households in the state.

People are going door to door, dropping off lists of labor-endorsed candidates with a special insert extolling Grijalva's support for jobs, extending unemployment benefits, and the EFCA, compared to his opponent, Ruth McClung's campaign, "to leave the unemployed out in the cold."

Music to get out the vote - pass it along!

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:24:00 +0000

Even the huge sums being poured into vicious smear ads against Democratic candidates across the country can't compete with the wave of inspiring get-out- the-vote songs and videos from labor songsters, hip hop artists and activists in the Latino community.

The cultural expressions are coming forth in answer to the voter suppression efforts of the cynical high rollers who are attempting to take over the country and turn back the clock to pre-civil rights days. Enjoy them and pass them along.

When singer/songwriter Bill Collins of the Rabble Rousers attended President Barack Obama's campaign rally in Stamford, Connecticut to support Richard Blumenthal for U.S. Senate last month, he heard more than a speech. Obama's often-repeated story about the car being driven into a ditch and the struggle to get it out was the makings of a rally song for Collins, who always counts on audience participation to get his point across.

He went to work and quickly created "Put the Car in D," a rousing Calypso-style song with crowd shout-backs. The recording session was timed so volunteers at the Labor 2010 phone bank could take a break to gather round and shout out, "Put the car in D - Okay, Don't put the car in R - No Way!"

Blumenthal was treated to the song when he spoke at a labor rally on his behalf in the very same hall a few days later.

"I don't have millions to spend on a campaign," Blumenthal said referring to the $46 million that tea party-backed Republican Linda McMahon has spent of her own money to flood television and radio with negative smear ads. "But I have something better, I have you," he concluded.

Collins and his supporters are working hard to get the song to go "viral" on the internet to inspire a large voter turnout and reject the corporate anti-people agenda.

"Let's fight the Republicans with our music and by getting out the vote!" says Bill.

The video is available on youtube, and can be downloaded for free here.

The huge sums being poured into smear ads against Democratic candidates across the country are a reminder of the vicious attack ads against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004 by the "swift boat veterans."

The same consulting group shares a P.O. Box with the recently formed conservative political action committee, Latinos 4 Reform, which attempted to buy $80,000 of airspace on Univision for an ad urging Latinos not to vote in the coming elections, as a way to "pay back" the Democratic Party for failing to enact immigration reform during the first two years of the Obama administration.

The message was so scandalous that in reaction the grammy award-winning multicultural fusion band Ozomatli wrote and recorded a song as part of the "Vote for Respect" campaign of the National Council of La Raza. The bilingual song, "Respeto," was released this week. The lyrics call on Latinos to come out and vote on November 2.

Recalling the record number of Latino voters that helped elect President Obama in 2008, NCLR president Janet Murguia emphasized, "In the midst of an economic crisis and harsh anti-Latino climate, Latinos cannot afford to stay home."

Ozomatli's Raul Pacheco explained," The simple act of voting has proven to be an important tool in the shaping of my surroundings. As a modern American Latino, it is a meaningful step to counter the specifically hateful and hurtful rhetoric that has been aimed at Latinos throughout this country." Pacheco adds, "Voting demonstrates self-respect. It is the dream of many that all who are eligible to vote do so this November 2nd. Vote for your family, vote for Respect!" The song is available here.

Last month, Jay Z produced a PSA for Vote Again 2010, featured on Head Count. His performances on the campaign trail with Barack Obama encouraged thousands of young people to vote for the first time in 2008. Now he is asking the same youth to "Fight for what's right / fight for what you believe in," and come out to vote again. "We changed the world," he said. "Stay forever young."

Head Count's goal is to "register voters and inspire participation in democracy through the power of music." Over 80 bands are part of the effort. Volunteers at concerts, festivals and community events around the country ask young people to sign a pledge to vote in 2010.

Labor and hip-hop have come together for a national campaign "Respect My Vote." The Hip-Hop Caucus, which reaches out to young people in the nation's urban centers, is calling for all those who voted for the first time in 2008 and helped elect President Obama, to come out again on November 2, 2010.

Image: Cover art for "Put the car in D."

Ariz. tea party candidate: No government regulation of salmonella

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:48:00 +0000

Salmonella in America's food supply has resulted, time and again, from uninspected plants with health, safety and labor violations.

1,300 people in 22 states fell sick during the last national outbreak because they ate eggs from one such plant in Iowa.

Across the board there were calls for doing something to close the gaps in the regulations that allowed this to happen.

In Arizona, however, a Republican candidate, Jesse Kelley, for the House in that state's 8^th District, has come out strongly in favor of such salmonella outbreaks. He, like many Republicans denying the obvious need for better enforcement of health and food safety regulations, almost incredibly, espoused what amounts to "E-Coli conservatism" at a campaign rally hosted by the Pima County Tea Party Patriots.

Steve Benen who wrote a column about it in the Washington Monthly picked the story up Oct. 24. A similar one can be found here:

A voter, during a question-and-answer period, asked Kelly about the recent salmonella case that required the recall of more than a half billion eggs.

The voter asked Kelly if he would support a law that would allow the federal government, through the Food and Drug Administration, to shut down companies that have too many safety violations, such as the Iowa outfit that allowed the sale of eggs that sickened so many last summer.

Kelly told the voter he didn't "believe what we're lacking right now is more regulations on companies."

"You could probably spit on the grass and get arrested by the federal government by now," Kelly said.

The voter did not give up. "Who's protecting us?" he asked. Kelly responded by saying, "It's our job to protect ourselves."

Still not giving up, the voter asked, "Am I supposed to go to a chicken farmer and say I'd like to close you down because all of your birds are half dead?"

Kelly responded: "There's a new thing that comes along every day. But I know this: Every part of our economy that is regulated by the government doesn't have fewer disasters, it has more."

"It really never occurred to me that right-wing Republicans would start running on a pro-salmonella platform," wrote Benen, "but Jesse Kelly and his tea party allies have a surprisingly twisted world view. Kelly seriously seems to believe that laws to enforce food safety are unnecessary, and may ultimately make matters worse. Just let the free market work its magic and everything will be fine."

Benen goes on to say that it is almost impossible to overstate how radical Kelly and many Republicans are. His concern is that as lack of regulation is putting Americans who purchase food in the hospital, zealous conservatives, instead of seeking stronger regulation, propose the FDA should do nothing and that we should fend for ourselves.

The "on your own society" favored by Kelly and his fellow tea partiers ends up, many progressives note, being a society where government actually has a very definite and decided bias - in favor of the rich, the big corporations and their profits and against the people and their health and safety.

"This congressional candidate - who stands a fairly strong chance of winning...actually supports the notion of Americans playing Russian Roulette every time they go to the grocery store," writes Benen. "I can only assume the vast majority has no idea what they're about to elect."

Image: Salmonella and E-coli are invisible on foods purchased at the grocery store. http://usf-unesco-ihe.blogspot.com/

Corporate push to buy Congress gets even bigger in home stretch

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 19:06:00 +0000

The flood of secret corporate contributions into Republican campaign coffers is bigger than ever in the final week before Election Day.

The New York Times reported Oct. 24 that much of the money is being put into 80 House races that are key to a Republican majority and that “the groups have started to place their final advertising bets in ways carefully coordinated to fill openings left by the more financially limited official (Republican) party and candidate committees.”

“They intend to force Democrats to spend money in districts they presumed safe. They (GOP candidates) are going to be very much indebted to these special interest groups that have come into these races,” said Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen.

Revulsion at the unprecedented flood of secret money continues to grow.

“Secret money is dangerous,” said the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne. “Secret money corrupts. Secret money is antithetical to the transparency that democracy requires.”

“An election is a public good, not a private exchange,” said Charles Kolb of the Committee for Economic Development. “If I want to buy a car from you, that’s an exchange between you and me. But elections are not a private commodity, candidates aren’t private commodities.”

As disturbing to progressives as the flood of secret cash, however, is the tidal wave of contributions this week that can be traced.

Firms that were bailed out with taxpayer dollars are spending heavily to elect Republicans.

Reports in the press Oct. 25 show that among companies with PACs, the 23 that received $1 billion or more in federal money through the Troubled Assets Relief Program gave a total of $1.4 million to candidates in September, up from $466,000 the month before. Most of those donations are going to Republican candidates, although the TARP was approved mainly with Democratic support.

The Wonk Room’s Brad Johnson documented how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is literally being fueled by “Foreign Oil.” The Chamber’s donors, he said, “who send their checks to the same account from which the political campaign is run – include multinational oil corporations, and even oil companies owned by the Kingdom of Bahrain.”

Investigators in Britain reported in the Oct. 24 Guardian that BP, just months after polluting the Gulf of Mexico with the worst oil spill in U.S. history, is busy now funding Tea Party candidates who deny global warming and oppose the president’s energy agenda.

Among the beneficiaries of BP’s generosity are Jim DeMint, the Republican senator from South Carolina and GOP Sen. James Inhofe, the infamous climate-change-denier from Oklahoma.

Only a day before the revelations about BP’s role in the midterms, at a California rally, President Obama had warned, “Oil companies and other special interests are spending millions on a campaign to gut clean-air standards, jeopardising the health and prosperity of this state.”

Against the onslaught, labor and its allies are not sitting idly by. Phone banks, literature drops, mailings and canvassing are happening across the country.

With some 3 million having already cast ballots in early voting, indications are that Democrats are holding up against the corporate onslaught.

In Nevada, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is in the most watched Senate race in the nation, observers give him a good chance of holding off a powerful challenge from a corporate-backed tea partier, Sharron Angle. “Obama’s team organized Nevada, better than anybody ever has,” Prof. Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia told TPMDC. “Those lists are fresh. Democrats have kept the lists fresh. If Reid wins narrowly we’ll probably attribute the victory to the get out the vote effort.

Progressives of every stripe are urging a huge turnout.

“Suppose the friends you dragged to the polls helped America reject the anonymous corporate dollars that threaten to drown our democracy?’” asked the Huffington Post’s Paul Loeb. “If you did, and enough others did as well, we’d have an infinitely more hospitable landscape going forward while we continue to work for the changes our country needs.”

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Latino voter enthusiasm on the rise

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:05:00 +0000

Republican Party bigotry and political activism has closed the so-called voter enthusiasm gap among Latino voters, new polling data reveals. According to Matt Barreto of the polling group Latino Decisions, Republican Party anti-immigrant messages have gone a long way to motivate Latino voters to become interested in the elections and they are trending increasingly Democratic.

Polls and trends among Latino voters, Barreto said, show that Latino voters in the past four weeks are "very enthusiastic" about the election with some 58 percent saying they intend to vote.

In addition, the overwhelming majority of enthusiastic Latino voters say they will likely vote Democratic. On the other hand unenthusiastic Latino voters tell pollsters they are usually Republican voters. Almost 6 in 10 likely Latino voters said they would vote Democratic, Barreto reported.

"Likely Latino voters are trending more Democratic than unlikely voters," Barreto stated. He noted also that this trend conflicts with mainstream media descriptions of the general voting public. "If you are a Republican who is a Latino, you're probably less excited this year about your party."

Barreto identified Republican Party efforts to ignore Latino voters or to actually attack that community in their campaign ads. He pointed to both anti-immigrant language in the Sharron Angle campaign in Nevada and an ad run by a shady front group calling itself Latinos for Reform, which used left-sounding language to discourage Nevada's Latinos from participating in the election.

Barreto also highlighted double-talk from Republican candidates like Meg Whitman in California's gubernatorial race and Marco Rubio in Florida's Senate race, both of whom in English have denounced immigrants and called for harsh anti-immigration policies in English-language ads while in Spanish both have tried to appeal to Latino voters who make up huge swaths of the voting population in those states.

Frank Sherry, executive director for America's Voice, an immigration reform advocacy group, said Latino voters appear to be unenthusiastic about candidates who say one thing in English and an entirely different thing in Spanish. He also predicted that as many as 6.5 million Latinos will vote in this election, and they could be decisive in many key congressional races, especially in the Southwest and Florida.

According to recent polling both Whitman's efforts in California and Republican Party-backed anti-voting ads have failed to achieve their goals among Latino voters. Among Latino voters Jerry Brown, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in California, holds a 36 percent advantage among Latino voters, up from 19 percent in September. Even Whitman herself admits she cannot win the election over Brown without a strong showing among Latino voters.

Barreto also attributed new enthusiasm among Latino voters to civic groups and political action organizations in the Latino community that work to educate voters and get out the vote.

Civil rights complaints against schools at record high

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 16:16:00 +0000

The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights has received a record-breaking number of complaints this year arguing the civil rights of students are being violated.

Nearly 7,000 civil rights complaints were filed this fiscal year marking an 11 percent increase from the previous year, the largest jump in at least 10 years.

"These are all cases that have to be resolved and systemic policy solutions put in place if we are going to protect every child's rights for an opportunity to learn," said John Jackson, president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education to the Associated Press.

The complaints vary from racial disparities in discipline having to do with strict zero-tolerance policies and suspension, to inadequate education for English language learners and unequal treatment of students with disabilities.

As an example, the Christina School District in Delaware is said to have suspended more than three times as many Black male students as their white male counterparts.

In the same district a third-grader whose grandmother sent her to school with a birthday cake and a knife to cut it was expelled due to zero-tolerance.

English-language learners in Los Angeles said they were segregated in separate classes for years, while they fell further and further behind their peers.

In Alabama, 10 districts were accused of discriminating against students with disabilities by assigning them transportation schedules that shortened their school days.

In May, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced he was reviving the department's Office of Civil Rights to begin investigating violations in schools nationwide. He said the investigations would focus on the higher rates of discipline of students of color, and racial disparities in college-prep courses in certain high schools.

Currently the DOE is conducting 54 compliance reviews of school districts and higher education institutions. The investigations are intended to figure out whether districts have policies that protect students and whether they are being implemented and enforced. Those that are found to be breaking the law could lose federal funding if they don't comply.

"The Department of Education's commitment to enforcing long-neglected civil rights laws is obviously resonating with students and their families and tapping into a deep well of pent-up demand for quality education," said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference in a statement. "Education is a civil and human right for all children. But 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, more than 40 percent of African American and Latino students still don't graduate from high school on time and approximately 2,000 schools are responsible for about 75 percent of minority drop outs."

Civil rights groups say disparities in educational opportunities having to do with the dropout rate among minority youth, and the school-to-prison pipeline are major concerns.

Critics note zero-tolerance policies are ineffective and are partly to blame for the growing disparity between white and black discipline rates.

"By following through on their pledge to make civil rights enforcement a top priority, Secretary Duncan and Assistant Secretary Russlynn Ali are helping to bring to light many of the problems that undermine our educational system and deny our children the future they deserve," added Henderson.

Others note the investigations are a good start but holding school districts accountable could be more challenging. The DOE has said that it will consider turning to the Department of Justice and taking legal action against districts that are breaking the law. Earlier this year, the DOE ordered a Mississippi school district to stop allowing its students to segregate its high schools.

Photo: Students talk after class at their south side Chicago high school. Pepe Lozano/PW

Women Wal-Mart workers press class action suit

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:49:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO (PAI) - The 1.2 million present and former female Wal-Mart workers who are victims of the monster retailer's past and continuing sexual discrimination in pay and promotions urged the U.S. Supreme Court to let their massive class action suit against Wal-Mart proceed to trial in lower courts.

In a brief filed Oct. 21, attorneys for the women said the justices should let the federal court in San Francisco hear the case, rather than approve Wal-Mart's demand that the high court decide whether a class action suit is merited at all.

Wal-Mart wants to force the women to sue it one by one for discrimination in pay and promotions since the day after Christmas in 1999. The case has been kicking around lower federal courts since 2001, mostly delayed by Wal-Mart's attempts to stall it or break it up.

"This latest appeal is just another attempt to delay the case," said Betty Dukes of Pittsburg, Calif., the lead plaintiff against Wal-Mart. Dukes had been a greeter and the case carries her name. "After nearly 10 years, the women of Wal-Mart deserve our day in court," she said.

"Premature review risks wasting the [Supreme] Court's resources because legal issues may change or be mooted by the time of any final judgment. Class certification orders, which may be altered or amended before final judgment, are especially fluid," the women's lawyers said. "This case is particularly ill-suited for review because even the scope of the class certification remains unsettled."

Then, to get their point across, the women cited the intellectual leader of the High Court's conservative bloc, Justice Antonin Scalia, as opposing premature review of lower courts' orders. "We generally await final judgment in the lower courts before exercising our jurisdiction," they quoted Scalia as saying.

Venal, vicious Wal-Mart, the world's largest private retailer, is known for its always-low pay, always-bad benefits and its rampant labor law-breaking against the United Food and Commercial Workers' attempts to unionize its workers.

The wide range of the discrimination was, again, revealed in details in the women's brief to the justices. A footnote said the average full-time Wal-Mart worker in 2001, when the case started, earned $18,000 yearly.

But the expert analysts the women's lawyers hired determined that female Wal-Mart workers - the overwhelming majority of the firm's non-supervisors - earned 5 percent to 15 percent less than their identically qualified male counterparts.

"Wal-Mart's system fosters gender stereotyping, and scores of class members gave powerful examples of it," the women and their lawyers argued in their brief.

Documents, computer records and testimony also revealed chain-wide discrimination in promotions, the women's lawyers told the justices in arguing the class-action case should go ahead. They said Wal-Mart imposed a culture of uniformity on its stores and did not post open management positions, thus barring many women who wanted promotions from even knowing about spots.

"The district court found that roughly 65 percent of hourly employees are women, while roughly 33 percent of management employees are women. When Wal-Mart's representation of women in management was compared to that of its 20 largest competitors, there was a statistically significant shortfall at nearly 80 percent of the stores," their brief added.

"Women also took longer than men to enter management positions. These ob-served differences existed even though female employees at Wal-Mart generally have more seniority and better performance ratings than do male employees," they said.

Since all that evidence - and more - has already been uncovered and shown to be company-wide, the case should proceed as a class-action suit, no matter how many millions of dollars Wal-Mart claims a "guilty" judgment would cost, the lawyers said.

The lower courts ruled the case could go forward, with the women suing for back pay and punitive damages, but not compensatory damages. Wal-Mart didn't even want that. The women and their lawyers accepted that condition.

Wal-Mart argues that condition "should be ignored where the amount of back pay for the class, collectively, could be a very large sum, although for the individual class member the average potential recovery would be a few thousand dollars a year. But Title VII" of the Civil Rights Act "places no cap on the equitable powers of the court to award back pay," the women's lawyers said.

"Where the class is large, the back pay total may also be large. But the aggregation of back pay resulting from class treatment does not alter the applicable legal principles," they declared.

The justices are expected to decide whether to take the Wal-Mart case against class action, or send the whole thing back down to the lower courts for trial, by the end of this year. If they take it, the Supreme Court would hear arguments after January.

Image: Jackie Vance-Kuss // CC BY-NC 2.0

Jeers to killing minimum wage - and more

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:03:00 +0000

CHEERS to Texas Lieutenant Governor candidate and former AFL-CIO leader Linda Chavez-Thompson for picking "Rosie the Riveter" as her theme for a fund-raising poster. From Texas AFL-CIO

JEERS to the Republican ideologues hoping to ask the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional the minimum wage, the National Labor Relations Act, overtime requirements and other laws that have benefited working families.

CHEERS to writer Matt Taibbi's new book, Griftopia, for showing that local governments are selling off important public assets. Example: all the parking meters in Chicago.

JEERS to Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, for creating a plan that would reduce benefits by gradually raising the Social Security retirement age and gradually trimming benefits.

CHEERS to the New York Times reporters who pieced together the sources of some of the multi-million dollar secret contributions tainting the 2010 elections.

JEERS to the front group called "Latinos for Reform," run by a major donor to former President George W. Bush, for running television ads in Nevada telling Hispanic voters NOT to vote on November 2.

CHEERS to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, who have set up a national hotline for any voting problems: 1-866-Our-Vote.

JEERS to right-wing Republican tea party, Palin-endorsed candidate for U.S. Congress Stephen Broden for telling a reporter that violence is "on the table" if the Republicans don't get what they want in this election!

CHEERS to the Economic Policy Institute for arguing in favor of a $250 payment to retirees who get no increase in Social Security again this year. From Economic Policy Institute

JEERS to Delta Airlines Chief Executive Richard Anderson for accusing labor organizers of "fear and smear" campaign tactics, calling them un-Christian.

Some content via The Associated Press.

Image: Texans for Linda.

Tea party activism tied to extremists turning violent

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:44:00 +0000

The tea party and its Republican Party handlers are on the defensive this week after an Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights report linked several prominent tea party leaders to extremist and openly racist organizations.

To cite some examples, the IREHR report revealed that Karen Pack, a leader of the Wood County Texas tea party in Texas, has been linked to the KKK. According to the report, Pack, who is a self-described "Christian, tea party member, a Constitutionalist and a Patriot," has been listed as an official supporter by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and a subscriber to a periodical published by a so-called "white patriot" organization.

Another leader of the tea party movement is Roan Garcia-Quintana of Mauldin, South Carolina, who was identified as "advisor and media spokesperson" for the 2010 Tax Day tea party rally in Greenville, South Carolina. As the IREHR report notes, Garcia-Quintana serves also as a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, the "direct descendant of the white Citizens Councils that fought to defend Jim Crow segregation during the 1950s and 1960s."

Dale Robertson helped found, and serves as the president of, 1776 Tea Party, which has an online membership located in several cities across the Southwest and South, from Mesa, Arizona, to Miami, Florida. According to the report, Robertson's extremist, anti-immigrant views have been well-publicized. In a media statement, Robertson urged a vigilante response to immigrants: "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. If the Republican Party or the Democrat Party does not turn conservative, and soon, then it will leave the tea party no choice but to take them over and clean house."

In 2009 "Robertson attended a tea party event in Houston with a sign reading 'Congress = Slaveowner, Taxpayer = N*ggar.'" He has circulated racist e-mails depicting President Obama as a pimp and has a record of promoting anti-Semitic speakers on his radio program.

Head of design, marketing, and advertising for the Council of Conservative Citizens newsletter in Florida is Peter Gemma, who also belongs to the ResistNet tea party. He is joined in that group by Tucson, Arizona, native Clay Douglas, who uses their website to promote his anti-Semitic blatherings on his Free American website and radio program. Douglas is known to have blamed Jews for the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Another ResistNet tea party activist is Arkansas native Billy Joe Roper, founder of a group called "White Revolution." Roper's group favors racial segregation and regularly denounces civil rights laws.

Virginia native and tea party activist, Larry Pratt was a leading figure in the anti-government militia movements in the 1990s, has participated in the KKK, Aryan Nations, and so-called Christian Identity groups, which preach, along with white supremacy, that Jews are Satanic and people of color are "mud people."

Recent events not discussed in the report reveal how far tea party supporters of Republican candidates are willing to go in this election. For example, the race for Michigan Attorney General turned ugly this week when supporters of the Republican candidate's campaign lobbed anti-Semitic attacks on David Leyton, the Democratic candidate.

According to a story in the central Michigan Morning Sun, one supporter of the Republican who had been used in campaign commercials posted a string of anti-Semitic comments on a news website, which "distilled down" said "the Jew lawyer Leyton had deprived her of justice, and the Jew who runs the site had connived to keep the suspect's ethnicity out of the paper." The newspaper lambasted the Republican campaign, saying it "owns the bigotry unleashed."

Another incident in Arizona revealed further how vicious and violent tea party activists can get to further their cause. Rep. Raul Grijalva was forced to close a congressional office in Tucson, Arizona, this week after a staffer opened a letter covered with swastikas and containing what seems to have been toxic white power reminiscent of the attacks against leaders of Congress after September 11, 2001. This is the third of a string of attacks, including gun shots and bomb threats, against Grijalva's offices. Anti-immigrant groups are suspected of the attacks.

"These groups and individuals are out there, and we ignore them at our own peril," said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous in a press statement this week. "They are speaking at tea party events, recruiting at rallies and in some cases remain in the tea party leadership itself. The danger is not that the majority of tea party members share their views, but that left unchecked, these extremists might indirectly influence the direction of the tea party and therefore the direction of our country: moving it backward and not forward."

Image: 'Signs' of racism in the tea party cometstarmoon // CC BY 2.0