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Fixing busted budgets

PWW Editorial Board — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:43:00 +0000

In state capitals across the country, the fiscal year began July 1 with financial catastrophe. Summer schools were shut in California, state parks closed in Arizona, drug treatment and home health workers were slashed in Illinois, and paydays were payless in Pennsylvania, to give only a few examples.

How did this nightmare happen?

While the current recession has pushed the states over the edge, with the growing numbers of jobless unable to pay into state revenues, the crisis, the worst since the 1930s, goes a lot deeper. The recession did not bring the states to the cliff’s edge.

Inequality did. The states with the biggest budget gaps are the states with the widest gaps between the wealthy and everyone else.

Fifty or 60 years ago states were building public schools, colleges and libraries, expanding state parks and upgrading roads because a huge chunk of the working class had become the “middle class” majority. That huge “middle class” and the poor who aspired to become part of it needed and cherished those valuable public services, and paid for them because they had decent paying jobs.

The rich then earned a far smaller portion of the total national income than they do now.

As the right wing moved to dominate our national politics the income gap grew wildly until we got what we have today — the biggest gap between rich and poor since 1929, with the top 1 percent earning almost a third of all income, and an economically weakened working class. The powerful wealthy minority slashed its own taxes while the middle class base for state revenues eroded, leaving the state budgets in the mess we see now. And what did the rich care about public services?

The long-range solution to the state budget crises lies in creating an economically and politically more viable working class. Adding millions to the rolls of organized labor and thereby creating millions of additional good-paying jobs will be a great start. Passing the Employee Free Choice Act this year is a prime example of what needs to be done. It will result in closing the income gap that is behind the disaster in our states.

Truth-telling time

PWW Editorial Board — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:38:00 +0000

This is truth-telling time in the fight for health care. The voices of the uninsured and underinsured, of those who have insurance but live in fear of losing it, must be heard. The stakes could not be higher.

The right-wing campaign to whip up anti-health-reform hysteria and demonize the Obama administration is based on lies, lies and more lies.

Insurance companies will stop at nothing to protect their giant profits. They are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of funneling the 50 million uninsured into their clutches.

The truth is that 14,000 people lose their health coverage each day — that’s 2.3 million each year. One in six people in the U.S. have no health coverage.

Health care is a basic human right. That right cannot be fulfilled when health care depends on profit-driven corporations. A public option is essential.

As Howard Dean noted, the Veterans Administration and Medicare, both public, are “two very good programs that have been around for a long time.”

Republicans and conservative Democrats are holding health care reform hostage, placing the insurance companies above their constituents’ needs.

But a growing number in Congress say they will not support a health care bill unless it includes the public option.

The choice of a public option is included in the House bill that will be voted on in September.

The big fight now is to get enough support in the Senate to win the public option there.

The White House has reiterated that President Obama “believes the public option is the best way.”

The far-right attacks are a signal that the task of mobilizing the 83 percent who support health care for all is vital.

Union members are setting the pace. They know that if this fight is lost it will be very hard to win the Employee Free Choice Act for the right to organize.

The time is now for everyone to get involved. Attend your lawmakers’ town hall meetings. Phone-bank. Knock on doors. Get the truth out. Join the national day of action Sept. 3 to send members of Congress back to Washington with the message “We can’t wait.”

This is a fight for the future of our country. It is a fight for democracy and progressive change. It is a fight that can be won with a groundswell of truth-telling and participation.

Theres more to us than print

PWW Editorial Board — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:46:00 +0000

We have gotten some great responses to the news that the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo is publishing daily online. But some of you still might not realize what our website has to offer, all the content you’ll be missing, if you don’t visit our daily coverage online.

Here are a few recent stories from our daily online publishing. Go to our website www.pww.org to read the complete stories:

Congressman Sestak: ‘I won’t budge on public option’

by Ben Sears, 8/13/09

PHILADELPHIA — In a packed meeting August 12 at a south Philadelphia church Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) brought the crowd of over 600 to its feet when he said he “would not budge” on the need for a public health plan option.

Labor seeks help from civil rights group

by John Wojcik, 8/14/09

Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, is urging the NAACP to help the labor movement organize workers – particularly African Americans – after the expected passage this year of the Employee Free Choice Act.

NAFTA meeting produces

disappointment

by Emile Schepers, 8/15/09

The three heads of government of the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) countries recently met in Guadalajara, Mexico. The net result of the meeting among Mexican President Felipe Calderon, U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is frustration and disappointment in all three countries.

Fox News: Still unfair and unbalanced

by Joel Wendland, 8/15/09

In addition to some of its major personalities promoting disruptions and even violence at congressional town hall meetings, the guests and commentators invited to appear on its programs seem to overwhelmingly oppose health reform as well.

Issues calmly debated at northern Calif. health care Town Hall

By Marilyn Bechtel, 8/18/09

ALAMEDA, Calif. ? Forty minutes before starting time, the line outside Alameda City Hall already stretched down the steps and across the block. Bright yellow tee-shirts printed with Health Care Reform Now! mingled with signs, Who profits from the status quo? and Public option now! Though most in the crowd clearly supported reform, one placard featured a vampire-toothed Uncle Sam demanding, “I want your money!”

The last thing Detroit needs: Wall Street dictators

by John Henry, 08/13/09

DETROIT — If one looks at the big picture, the city of Detroit is being set up by the powers that be, including the news media, for the same treatment as the school system here received — a financial dictatorship, with Wall Street and its agents ripping off the city’s workers and people. Mayor Dave Bing is demanding that city workers take a 10 percent pay cut over two years based on Detroit’s financial woes and debts to Wall Street.

••••••••

For those readers who have no access to a computer, please be advised that we are not doing away with the hard-copy printed word altogether. We are going to produce such a downloadable version weekly — in English and Spanish — easy to print from your home computer, library or school.

Perhaps, with successful fundraising efforts, a regular printable daily digest could be a doable goal in the not-too-distant future.

We also want to know how many of you have no access to computers at all so we can make sure this weekly printed mini-version is available to you. Please call editor Teresa Albano at (773) 446-9920 ext. 201 to let her know.

The Daily Worker began in Chicago in January 1924. This is our 85th year of “fighting words.” We’re very excited about this new venture, and look forward to your continued involvement and support. Please contact us if you have any questions.

British National Health ervice - The Truth!

Workers Uniting — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:33:00 +0000

Opponents to President Obama’s healthcare reform plan have circulated a number of serious lies and gross distortions about the UK’s National Health Service to defend their own interests and scupper plans that will help the 47 million Americans currently without healthcare cover.

What is the NHS? The UK’s National Health Service provides a wide range of healthcare services - everything from antenatal screening and routine treatments for coughs and colds to open heart surgery, accident and emergency treatment and end-of-life care to the whole UK population of 60million people.

Most importantly it is free for people to access healthcare and 1 million patients are seen every 36 hours.

The NHS funded by general taxation and is organised and run at a local, regional level. It is one of the most efficient, most egalitarian and most comprehensive in the world, looking after everyone from their birth to their death. It is an institution supported by every major political party in Britain and the British population, who have been responding to the Republican attacks on the NHS on Twitter, at #welovetheNHS by posting their own stories of how the NHS has saved and improved the lives of them and their loved ones, for free. LIE 1: that older people do not receive treatment on the NHS

Ted Kennedy, 77, would not be treated for his brain tumour if he was in Britain because he is too old (Charles Grassley, Republican senator from Iowa)

In England, anyone over 59 years of age cannot receive heart repairs, stents or bypass because it is not covered as being too expensive and not needed, (an anonymously authored, but widely circulated, email).

THE TRUTH There is no ban on anyone of any age receiving any treatment – indeed, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of age when providing services. Professor Peter Weissberg, the medical director of the British Heart Foundation, an independent charity, says that “Growing numbers of patients over 65 with heart conditions are having surgery, including valve repairs and heart bypass surgery”. Additionally, the average age at which people have a bypass operation has risen from 58 in 1991 to 66 in 2008.Decisions over whether to recommend and perform surgery or prescribe drugs are clinical decisions, taken on a case by case basis on what is best for each patient. LIE 2: officials decide the ‘worth’ of each person’s life, denying treatment to those who are deemed ‘worthless’.

People such as scientist Stephen Hawking [who has Motor Neurone Disease, a degenerative illness] wouldn't have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.' (Investors Business Daily)

Government health officials in England have decided that $22,750 (£14,000) is what six months' life is worth. Under their socialised system, if a medical treatment costs more, you're out of luck (Club for Growth)

THE TRUTH Professor Stephen Hawking lives and works in Britain and received NHS treatment as recently as April 2009. He has responded to the above claim by saying that he “wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived”.

In Britain, the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) decides whether new drugs represent value for money for the NHS. There has been a gross misrepresentation of its role; Nice assesses new drugs by looking at the amount and quality of extended life it is hoped the patient will gain by looking at the medical evidence. The current ceiling is £30,000 for a full course of treatment but exceptions are made. LIE 3: rationing means people are not able to access the treatment they need for serious conditions.

In Britain, 40% of cancer patients are never able to see an oncologist; there is explicit rationing for services such as kidney dialysis, open heart surgery and care for the terminally ill. (Conservatives for Patients' Rights)

The British NHS 'does not allow' women under 25 to receive screening for cervical cancer (Jim DeMint, Republican senator from South Carolina)

THE TRUTH There is no ‘rationing’ for services such as kidney dialysis, open heart surgery or end of life care.

The above claim about cancer is from an out of date, 15 year old study. In 2000 a 10 year programme was launched, setting key targets for improvement. The National Audit Office, which is responsible for analyzing how effectively the government spends money, reported in 2005 that 99.2%of people who are referred by their doctor with suspected cancer see a specialist within 2 weeks and 89.9% of patients diagnosed with cancer begin treatment within 31 days.

There is an ‘End of Life Care Strategy’ that “aims to improve access to high quality care for adults approaching the end of life. This care should be available wherever the person might be, ie at home, in a care home, in hospital, in a hospice, or somewhere else.”

All women over 25 are routinely and regularly invited for a cervical smear. Any woman, at any age, who presents symptoms of cervical cancer will receive a smear test if their doctor thinks it is appropriate.

Long Island City factory accused of being sweatshop

Workers Independent News — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 03:12:00 +0000

Original source:

A clothing factory in Long Island City is being charged with operating as a sweatshop by workers.

According to the New York Daily News, workers for Great Wall Corporation have been rallying outside of the factory and allege they were fired after they complained to management about work weeks as long as 100-hours and wages below the minimum.

Some employees were allegedly forced to work more than 15 hours and locking doors until garment orders were completed.

The workers are filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board.

This isn’t the first time Great Wall has been accused of wage violations.

Hands off our health service

John Millington — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:07:00 +0000

Original source:

British health unions unveiled two initiatives designed to address a barrage of propaganda from US insurance companies and lobbyists who hope to scupper US President Barack Obama's plans for public health.

Launching the 'NHS factfile' for sister unions in the US, health union UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: 'We are outraged by the gross lies and distortions being spread in the US about our NHS.

'A universal health system, free at the point of need is something that we can all be proud of - it is a mark of a civilised, caring society,' he said.

UNISON and Unite joined forces to launch a campaign highlighting the benefits of the NHS to the public.

A Unite spokesman said that the union was calling on NHS staff and communities to challenge the 'sell-off and break-up of our NHS.'

The latest twist in a war of words that is assuming international incident proportions saw the reactionary US Conservatives for Patients Rights group heavily criticised for a documentary about the British health-care system featuring NHS patients.

Several people who appeared in the broadcast complained that their views had been 'misrepresented' in order to discredit the concept of universal health care.

Further fuel was added to the fire when Tory MEP Daniel Hannan appeared on Fox News to tell US viewers that he 'wouldn't wish the NHS on anyone.'

Mr Hannan went on to compare the NHS with being a relic of a time of 'rationing' and part of a 'benign' state.

Embarrassed Conservative Party leader David Cameron was forced to distance himself from the 'eccentric' views of Mr Hannan, insisting that the NHS was his party's 'number one mission.'

Labour has launched a 'We love the NHS' campaign in order to counteract the propaganda offensive from free-market think tanks and right-wing politicians.

However, this prompted left MPs unions and campaigners to urge the government to end all private-sector involvement in the NHS in order to improve services for patients.

Labour Representation Committee chairman John McDonnell MP said he found it 'ironic' that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was 'twitters and tweets' in defence of the NHS when private-sector involvement was at an all-time high.

'As chancellor and prime minister, Mr Brown has undertaken the largest-scale privatisation of health care since the NHS was founded,' said Mr McDonnell.

Commenting on the prospects for the NHS under a Conservative government, Mr McDonnell added: 'The US model of health care demonstrates what the Tories will do if they get elected, despite Cameron's assurances.

'Big business will take over on the basis of a private insurance system and millions will lose the right to health care.'

Campaign group Health Emergency spokesman Geoff Martin condemned the 'unreconstructed free-market fruit cakes' leading the charge against socialised medicine.

'Rather than Gordon Brown twittering, he could send out a real message by slinging United Health Care, who are one of the private health corporations, out of the NHS,' he said.

Congress losing patience with lending industry on foreclosure prevention

Alex Goldman — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Original source:

Rep. Barney Frank, D. Mass., chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, is taking a hard line with the lending industry for failing to take action to prevent more foreclosures. In a statement issued last week, Frank said his committee would not support the industry's legislative agenda until lenders do far more to modify troubled mortgage loans.

In 2008, Congress passed a law designed to encourage, but not require, mortgage lenders to refinance loans in order to prevent foreclosures. Another bill that would have given bankruptcy judges the ability to rework defaulted home mortgages passed in the House of Representatives earlier this year but was stripped from the Senate bill after intense lobbying by the banking industry.

The industry argued that allowing courts to modify loans would force lenders to raise interest rates and discourage them from voluntarily modifying mortgage terms. However, data released today by the Obama administration shows that only 9 percent of eligible homeowners have had their mortgage terms restructured since the program began in February.

'I can assure all concerned that no legislation which we are asked to pass to facilitate the full return of the lending industry to the role it should be playing in the economy will pass out of the Financial Services Committee unless we see a significant increase in mortgage modifications and foreclosure-avoidance, or the legislation includes a bankruptcy provision for primary residences,' said Frank.

Minimum wage hike still leaves workers short

Workday Minnesota — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 05:06:00 +0000

ST. PAUL - (Workday Minnesota) On July 24, the federal minimum wage rose from $6.55 to $7.25 per hour, an increase of 70 cents or just over 10 percent. For full-time minimum wage workers, the raise amounts to about $28 a week.

'When you are barely keeping your head above water, any wave can drown you,' said worker advocate Kris Jacobs, director of the statewide JOBS NOW Coalition. 'An extra bag of groceries means a lot to vulnerable low-wage workers and their families.'

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, if the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation since 1968, it would now be $9.92 an hour. More than 600,000 jobs in Minnesota pay less than $9.92 per hour; and in Greater Minnesota one out of four jobs pay less than this.

JOBS NOW’s Cost of Living in Minnesota research shows the results of the steep decline in value and purchasing power of the minimum wage. At the new minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, a couple with two children living in Minnesota would have to work 148 hours a week just to meet basic needs.

According to JOBS NOW's research on living standards, each worker in a Minnesota family of four with two workers needs at least $13.41 per hour. View the research at www.jobsnowcoalition.org.

Over the next year the wage hike will generate $5.5 billion in consumer spending across the nation, according to the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute.

Nationally, about 10 million workers - 10.7% of all workers – will earn the new, higher wage, according to an analysis by the organization Workplace Fairness.

Minnesota businesses that engage in interstate commerce and have annual business volume of $500,000 or more will be covered by the new minimum. But firms smaller than that who do not engage in interstate commerce will still pay only $5.25 an hour and the 90 day training wage for workers under 20 years old remains $4.90.

Letters - August 8, 2009

Readers — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:18:00 +0000

A faith inspired vision of health care justice

It is not often that we religious leaders speak with one voice across the state, but we are compelled to do it now.

How could we not do so, when nearly fifty million American residents are without health care, when people are being denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions and when a major cause for bankruptcy is personal and family medical debt?

The many religious traditions we represent have long advocated for reform that makes quality health care affordable and accessible for all. But year after year, decade after decade, the American people have been denied this essential coverage and frustrated repeatedly by special interests. That must stop and it must stop now, because accessible health care is not only right but the key to economic security and opportunity.

We urge people of all faiths and people of no religious affiliation but with a deep sense of conscience and justice, to join us in telling our congressional representatives to approve legislation that gives all people the opportunity to choose an affordable private or public health insurance plan.

The time for all of us to act is now. Please do your part.

The Health Care

Justice Campaign

Champaign IL

The Health Care Justice Campaign is a project of the Campaign for Better Health Care, www. cbhconline.org.

Get out of Afghanistan

The elongated occupation of Afghanistan faces rising difficulties because its justification is so dishonest and, thus, its aims so shifty and unclear. It can never be officially acknowledged that this ugly venture is really part of a grand chess game for control of the region’s fabulous energy resources.

An initial rationale for invading Afghanistan was, of course, to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, but that goal quickly dissipated when, by most accounts, the Pentagon let the presumptive al Qaeda boss slip away into Pakistan, even though he’d been reportedly located and surrounded.

A subsequent justification cited the invasion’s supposed liberation of Afghan women, invoking a wispy U.S. “obligation” in that regard. Despite the sentimental appeal of this excuse, the status of Afghan women has changed very little, particularly outside of Kabul where the government holds virtually no sway.

Now, the U.S. mission has morphed into a full blown exercise in nation building, all the while trying to defeat a growing domestic resistance centered on the region’s dominant Pashtun tribe. To that end, troop levels have surged and casualties mounted. Defense Secretary Gates says there’s no end in sight and has obliquely hinted that circumstances might require a ground assault into Pakistan, where U.S. aerial bombings have already become routine.

The mythic Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu, is said to have advised, “There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.” President Obama and his generals should dwell on Sun’s venerable wisdom, before they hypocritically shed more blood on behalf of international corporate energy interests.

Cord MacGuire

Boulder CO

Indonesia’s deadly Kopassus

Indonesia’s Special Forces (Kopassus), more than any other in the Indonesian military, stands accused by the Indonesian people of some of the most egregious human rights violations.

The history of Kopassus human rights violations, its criminality and its unaccountability before Indonesian courts extends back decades and includes human rights and other crimes in East Timor, Aceh, West Papua and elsewhere. The crimes of Kopassus are not only in the past. A recently published Human Rights Watch report details ongoing Kopassus human right violations in West Papua.

In 2008, the Bush administration proposed to restart U.S. training of Kopassus. The State Department legal counsel reportedly ruled that the ban on training of military units with a history of involvement in human rights violations, known as the Leahy law, applies to Kopassus as a whole.

See the letter signed by more than 50 U.S. organizations opposing training for Kopassus: http://www.etan.org/news/2009/07kopassus.htm. Additional background about the crime of Kopassus here:

http://www.etan.org/news/2008/04brikop.htm.

John Miller,

Brooklyn NY

John Miller is national coordinator of the East Timor & Indonesia Action Network.

Day care for all

I just opened up my July 11-17 edition (I’m behind) and read of the ceasing publication of the print edition message. Sad.

Nevertheless, I still send this suggestion to you.

William Greider’s article in the May 25 edition of The Nation states among other things, “The extensive family-centered social systems in Europe suggest opportunities for U.S. reforms.”

Of course he’s talking about day care, maternity leave, vacations, health care, etc., etc.

With the party’s contacts through out Europe, couldn’t the paper come up with a full page (easily distributable) comparing the low-standing U.S. to the European nations and their benefits in those areas above?

Those bread and butter issues are the kinds of things that capture people’s attention and show them that the U.S. is not the #1 nation (except in war-making) as they might believe.

I know your staff is swamped. I’ve made this suggestion before and before. But it’s a winner and the process shouldn’t be that hard to at least start.

Lawrence H. Geller

Via e-mail

Special note

The People’s Weekly World does not publish the first week of August. We will be back the following week with the edition dated Aug. 15-21, a change in how we currently date the paper. However, the website, which you can access with www.pww.org OR www.peoplesworld.org, will have daily news and analysis through that week.

Lastly, when we roll out the new website on Sept. 1, our name will officially change since we aren’t a “weekly” anymore. It will be People’s World.

As of January 2010 this newspaper will have a new weekly print format, a downloadable edition of the People’s World. This edition will contain some national stories and a local story (in English and Spanish) and can be distributed locally.

I have received a few dozen requests so far from subscribers who have no Internet access to receive this new format through the mail. If you have no online access, please call me at (773) 446-9920 x201.

Everyone else, I urge you to sign up now to receive pww.org headlines delivered directly to your email. It’s easy and quick. Go to www.pww.org – or - www.peoplesworld.org. You don’t want to miss all the extensive DAILY coverage.

Teresa Albano

Chicago IL

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Devils and details

PWW Editorial Board — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:12:00 +0000

Republicans – and some “Blue Dog” Democrats are bound and determined to stop any kind of health care reform, having made their deal with the devils of the insurance/medical industry giants.

So far two different bills have passed in major committees in Congress. But those bills have stalled in two other equally important committees. Of particular note, the Senate Finance Committee stands as the final major hurdle to producing a final bill.

Both bills contain a lot of the same important reforms: investments in health information technology, ending discrimination by insurers against policy holders who have preexisting conditions and making insurance coverage portable from place to place and job to job.

Plus, both bills expand choices of insurance plans by creating a market place of options, including a publicly-funded and run insurance plan.

While some details about the public option differ, it seems that people who earn between 133 percent to 400 percent of poverty (or individuals earning less than $43,000 or a family of four below $89,000) will be eligible for a sliding scale of discounts in the public insurance plan based on income. (People below that level would be eligible for an expanded Medicaid program.)

Essentially, most people choosing the public insurance plan would pay similar premium rates and expenses that a typical retired Medicare recipient pays now. Both bills mandate that beneficiaries of the public option have the same choices of doctors and care they would have in a private plan.

The president favors three key reforms that will pay for the program. First, end federal overpayments to the profiteering Medicare Advantage programs created by the Republicans and the Bush administration in 2005.

Second, fix Medicare and Medicaid repayment procedures to create parity and fairness across the country.

Third, limit tax deductions for the very richest one percent of Americans, a tax code reform that would restore the levels signed into law by Ronald Reagan in 1986.

Not only are these funding mechanisms important to making sure the public option is viable, they are important to remedying the very worst economic policies adopted by the Bush administration: deregulation, the creation of bloated and expensive privatized programs and tax cuts for the rich paid for by the rest of us.

General strike in Honduras targets coup government

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:59:00 +0000

GRANMA INTERNATIONAL Havana. July 24, 2009

TEGUCIGALPA (PL).—The three principal labor unions in Honduras are maintaining a general strike in the state sector for the second day this Friday, supported by road blocks put in place by the popular forces repudiating the coup d’état.

The country remained paralyzed yesterday for several hours due to the closing of several strategic routes by demonstrators, workers leader Juan Barahona informed Prensa Latina.

Barahona, president of the United Workers Federation, described the first day of the strike as a success, taking into account the road blocks and occupation of various state institutions by workers.

The popular actions cut off the country’s principal ports on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, as well as highways connecting the capital with the northern part of the country.

Meanwhile, thousands of people began to move toward the Nicaraguan border. Constitutional President Manuel Zelaya affirmed yesterday that he is to return to his homeland overland from Nicaragua.

Many people called Radio Globo, a radio station that is keeping its microphones open for the people, to report that they had been victims of repression by the army forces who attempted to halt their movement.

In addition, a new problem has presented itself to the de facto government headed by the entrepreneur Roberto Micheletti: police discontent over delays in paying their wages, which has provoked a strike by some agents from a station in the capital.

Daniel Molina, an official police spokesman, tried to downplay the issue, assuring the press that it was merely related to administrative problems.

Nevertheless, officers interviewed by TV Channel 36 – the only station with a critical stance toward the June 28 coup – said that they will not attend to their duties until their complaints are resolved.

The problems arising in this repressive body, which includes the special Cobras squadron, comes in addition to the regime’s international isolation and the wave of popular condemnation that will completes its 27th day this Friday.

The leaders of the National Front against the Coup stated last night that the popular struggle will continue until the coup leaders are defeated and constitutional order and Zelaya are restored.

During the blocking of the northern exit of the Panamericana Highway in the capital yesterday, the crowd was urged over loudspeakers to leave in convoys for the border with Nicaragua to await Zelaya.

Translated by Granma International

Young Republicans elect a new leader who's under fire for racist remarks

Sue Sturgis — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Original source:

The Republican Party has been trying to revamp its image as more inclusive of diversity -- but the newly elected leader of the party's youth branch may set that effort back.

At their annual convention in Indianapolis last week, the Young Republican National Federation elected as their new chair Audra Shay (in photo) of New Orleans, the group's former vice chair at large. Shay, a 38-year-old Arkansas native, defeated Rachel Hoff, the group's director of media relations, by a vote of 470-415, according to The Daily Beast.

The online news site has been covering the story in depth, revealing racially offensive comments made by Shay on Facebook:

Specifically, a thread where one of her friends posts that 'Obama Bin Lauden [sic] is the new terrorist... Muslim is on there side [sic]... need to take this country back from all of these mad coons... and illegals,' and Shay responds eight minutes later with: 'You tell em Eric! lol.'

When two Facebook friends including the head of the African-American Young Republican Chapter complained about the racist remarks, Shay reportedly responded by unfriending them. She later released a statement disavowing her support for the remarks and pointing out that under her chairmanship the Louisiana Young Republicans raised $90,000 for a minority outreach media campaign.

But the Daily Beast also reported that in October 2008, following news that Sarah Palin was being hung in effigy outside a home as an offensive Halloween decoration, Shays posted to Facebook, 'What no Obama in a noose? Come on now, its just freedome [sic] of speech, no one in Atlanta would take that wrong! Lol.'

She later added, 'Apparently I could not spell last night. I am wondering if the guys with the Palin noose would care if we had a bunch of homosexuals in a noose.'

US mining-giant employees ambushed in Indonesia

Morning Star — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Original source:

Gunmen have ambushed employees of US mining giant Freeport in the Indonesian province of Papua, killing a security guard and wounding five others.

The attack was mounted near the spot where police units were investigating the fatal shooting a day earlier of an Australian national working for the transnational.

Papua police chief Bagus Ekodanto pinned the blame on separatist rebels who denounce Freeport as a symbol of Jakarta's rule.

The Indonesian government does not allow foreign media to freely report from Papua, where it has deployed tens of thousands of troops.

The Grasberg mining complex, a global supplier of copper and gold that began operations under the Western-backed Suharto dictatorship, has been a constant source of friction with local Papuans angered over the outflow of profit to foreign investors.

Two US citizens were killed in an ambush in 2002 near the huge open-pit Grasberg mine.

'Slumdog' child star moves into new Mumbai flat

Xinhua — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:31:00 +0000

(Xinhuanet) -- The 'Slumdog Millionaire' child star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and his mother moved from slum shanty into their new apartment in Mumbai, according to media reports Wednesday.

'I was shocked when I saw this house,' Azharuddin, 11, said Tuesday. 'I want to thank Danny Boyle for giving us this flat.'

Boyle, the director of the film, and producer Christian Colson, will transfer the apartment to Azharuddin's name when he turns 18, provided he finishes school.

Officials from the trust — set up by the filmmakers to secure an education, housing and a living allowance for Azhar and his co-star Rubina Ali, 9 — are actively searching for a new home for Rubina as well.

The 50,000 U.S. dollars one-bedroom apartment is on the ground floor of a seven story brown concrete apartment building called 'Harmony,' which sits on a quiet cul-de-sac in the Santa Cruz West section of Mumbai.

'God has given me so much,' Azharuddin’s mother Shameem Ismail said. 'We will sleep very well tonight. There is no water leaking, no bad environment, no quarreling.'

She and Azhar will share the main room, while Azharuddin’s brother Irfan Ismail Sheikh, 22, and his wife will sleep on a mattress in the kitchen, she said.

Azharuddin’s mother said she doesn't want her husband in the new house because he does drugs, but she pledged to return to Garib Nagar, one of Mumbai's more wretched slums where they used to live, for visits.

Ukrainians seek to rename village after Michael Jackson

Xinhua — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:04:00 +0000

Residents of a Ukrainian village are seeking to rename it after the late pop singer Michael Jackson, media reports said Wednesday.

A lawmaker who represents the village said villagers in Oktyabrskoye, located in the Zaporizhia region in the country's southeast, had approached him with a proposal to rename the village 'Jackson,' an AFP report said.

'There are many fans of Michael Jackson there. They want to immortalize him,' said Oleg Kislitsyn, a deputy in the regional parliament.

Kislitsyn said he was in favor of the proposal.

hAccording to Zaporozhye Region's Reporter newspaper, one of the factions in the legislature has already discussed the proposal, and it could be put to a vote soon.

When asked what links existed between Oktyabrskoye and Jackson -- who died following a heart attack at the age of 50 on June 26 -- Kislitsyn said the world was in the process of 'globalization.'

He added: 'I am not a fan but I respect his work. He had an iron-clad will for victory.'

Pride Month: Suggested reading and viewing

PWW Editorial Board — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:19:00 +0000

These days you can find many LGBT titles at your local public library, nearby bookstore, and of course online. These include poetry, graphic novels and comics, classic and contemporary fiction and a whole lot more. Share your suggestions at pww@pww.org.

Books

“Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin” by John D’Emilio

“Queer In America: Sex, Media and Closets Of Power” by Michelangelo Signorile

“And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the Aids Epidemic” by Randy Shilts

“The Mayor Of Castro Street: The Life And Times Of Harvey Milk” by Randy Shilts

“Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military” by Randy Shilts

“Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked The Gay Revolution” by David Carter

— Anne Montegue

“Trouble with Harry Hay” by Stuart Timmons

— Barbara Russum

“Beyond the Pale: A Novel” by Elana Dykewomon This compelling novel about Russian-Jewish immigrant and lesbian life at the turn-of-the century is a multi-layered, odyssey of a lesbian woman forced to flee the horrific anti-Semitism of Russia to the challenges of an immigrant life in New York.

— Terrie Albano

DVDs

“Brother Outsider: The Life Of Bayard Rustin” by Sam Pollard (executive producer), Nancy D. Kates (producer/director), Bennett Singer (producer/director).

— Anne Montegue

“Paris is Burning” is a classic independent film by Jennie Livingston about the transvestite club underground in NYC circa 1990s. Very good movie!

— Valeda Dent

“Transamerica” directed and written by Duncan Tucker is a wonderful film about transexuality, humanity, community, family and love in America.

— Terrie Albano

WORLDNOTES: Canada, Russia, Iraq, Japan, Latin America and Cuba

W. T. Whitney Jr. — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:58:00 +0000

Canada: Trade pact approved

The Canadian Senate approved a Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement June 17 as Canada’s first bilateral trade agreement ratified since 2002. Critics contrasted that action with the government’s reluctance to approve a Canada-Colombia trade deal because of human rights concerns.

Last month’s police massacre in the Peruvian Amazon “slipped under the radar,” according to straight.com. The slaughter of over 100 indigenous activists came after peaceful demonstrators had been protesting for two months against their neo-liberal government’s implementation of the Peru-U.S. free trade agreement.

Canadian companies account for half the natural resources extracted from Peru, according to Stewart Trew, trade spokesperson for the progressive Council of Canadians group. “The silence in Canada has been incredible,” he added.

Russia: Workers protest plant closings

Worker demonstrations against factory closings and wage arrears have proliferated recently, according to mosnews.com.

Protesting workers at a closed-down porcelain factory in the Sverdlovsk region faced police repression when they blocked a highway June 23. Earlier last month, it took a visit from Prime Minister Putin to induce owners to reopen three factories near St. Petersburg, an action enabling highway demonstrators to return to work.

Tungsten workers in the Vladivostok area received long-unpaid wages after threatening to stop road traffic. Protests at a Zlatoust metal plant and a tractor plant in Rubtsovsk yielded similar results. Laid-off workers at the Petrovsky Alcohol Factory are planning a protest march to Moscow on June 30.

Iraq: Kurdish region to vote on new constitution

With their own government and parliament in place since 1991, Kurds in Iraq have maintained control over three provinces. That parliament last week overwhelmingly approved a new constitution to be voted upon as part of parliamentary elections set for July 25. It puts forth claims to additional provinces, including oil-rich Kirkuk, much to the displeasure of the Iraqi government and Arabs who settled in the region under the Saddam Hussein regime, according to Agence France-Presse.

If it persists with plans to buy a British company investing in Kurdish oil fields, the national Iraqi government may force the Chinese state oil company Sinopec to abandon Iraqi fields elsewhere, Reuters said.

Presently Kurdistan has its own flag, anthem and national day.

Japan: Differences over North Korea

Dissent greeted a government-proposed measure aimed at implementing the recent U.N. Security Council Resolution against North Korean nuclear testing. Despite the resolution’s prioritization of non-military and diplomatic efforts, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party advanced plans last month for the Japanese military to provide logistical support for U.S. forces inspecting North Korean cargo ships.

Communist Party parliamentarian Kasai Akira demanded the government pursue “a peaceful and comprehensive solution and avoid measures likely to intensify military tension between Japan and North Korea.” Japan Press service cited ruling party statements that “Japan needs to make preemptive strikes against enemy bases.”

Proposals have been introduced to bolster Coast Guard capabilities for cargo inspections in Japanese ports.

Latin America: ALBA is growing

Meeting in Carabobo, Venezuela June 24, ALBA welcomed Ecuador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda into the now nine-member alliance. The group adopted the name “Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas,” replacing “alternative” with “alliance.”

Venezuela and Cuba formed ALBA in 2004 to overcome submission to the international market economy, orchestrated by U.S.-controlled financial institutions.

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa urged moving beyond economics toward becoming a “political project” based on “solidarity, integration, and being the owners of our own destiny,” a redirection evident in the final summit declaration, according to venezuelanalysis.com.

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela sought delegates’ support for restructuring the United Nations and Organization of American States. The summit established ministerial commissions.

Cuba: Economic crisis affects agriculture

Granma newspaper last week reported that the proposed return of oxen to planting and harvest operations would save money and improve capabilities for working small land parcels. Some 265,000 oxen are presently available.

Austerity planning necessitated by waning credit and falling export and tourism revenues has affected agriculture, already charged with building up domestic production. Authorities have cut supplies of extra grains to consumers, despite pending recommendations for increased daily caloric intake. The Trade Ministry, rather than the Agricultural Ministry, now buys food from producers.

Inter Press Service reported that almost 40 percent of Cuba’s excessive amount of idle land has recently been leased to farmers. Potato and tomato harvests are up this year, while production of pork and eggs is down.

World Notes are compiled by W.T.Whitney Jr. (atwhit@roadrunner.com)

The hemispheric significance of the Honduras events

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:25:00 +0000

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has announced he will return to his country this weekend, accompanied by a distinguished group of Latin American and International figures including Organization of American States Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador. He had originally planned to return on Thursday July 2, but postponed his arrival to allow for an ultimatum the OAS have given to the acting president of Honduras to expire. Although the illegal regime set up by the people who carried out the coup have threatened to arrest Zelaya if he returns, my guess is that the coup is done for, and that Zelaya’s return will be a march of triumph.

How did the events in Honduras, one of the smallest and poorest countries in Latin America, suddenly acquire what Marx would have called “world historical” importance? This was not the first military coup d’etat to occur in the region, after all, or in Honduras itself.

The Honduran drama has become the stage on which a momentous conflict is being acted out in miniature, a conflict that has hemispheric and worldwide implications. The stupid move by the Honduran military to revert to an old fashioned barracks coup d’etat has made everything come to a head in Honduras.

The Washington Consensus

Since the collapse of Soviet and Eastern European socialism 18 years ago, Latin America and the Caribbean, like other poor Third World regions, has been subjected to ferociously exploitative economic policies that can be subsumed under the titles of “Washington Consensus” or “the neo-liberal package”.

The Washington Consensus promotes development through free trade and foreign investment. The “free trade” part is a scam as the trade is not free, but rigged in favor of the wealthier countries and international monopoly capital. NAFTA, set up between Mexico, the United States and Canada, is an example, as DR-CAFTA, set up between the United States and the Central American countries plus the Dominican Republic, is another.

This model requires the following from participating poor countries:

That they open up their economies to penetration by foreign multilateral corporations, changing their laws and even their constitutions to get rid of not only trade protectionism, but also labor and indigenous rights, environmental protection, tax laws and other measures that might be deemed to be prejudicial to the interests of foreign investors.

*That they privatize their economies in order to permit foreign and domestic capitalists to realize profits from every aspect of the nation’s economic functioning, including the health care and educational systems, public transportation, water for drinking and irrigation, and many other things.

*That they carry out a program of austerity to cut the government’s payroll, this being a special requirement if a country wants help from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

There have been rebellions against this neo-liberal package since January 1, 1994, when NAFTA came into force and indigenous farmers in Chiapas, Mexico, arose in arms specifically to fight against it. DR-CAFTA has led to major protests in all countries involved. There are currently big disturbances over the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement. The big project of the Bush administration, the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) has evidently only succeeded in creating unity among forces in several countries of the area which oppose it.

Resistance to Neo-Liberal Policies Grows

Cuba alone has toughed out this whole period of neo-liberalism, a tribute to the brilliant historic leadership of the Cuban Revolution, the fighting qualities of the Cuban people, and the agility of the Cuban model of socialism in adapting itself to all kinds of internal and external challenges.

But while Cuba was toughing it out in conditions of great difficulty and hardship, the “old mole” of class struggle in the rest of the hemisphere was digging away. In country after country, the cause of the working class and the masses was reviving strength and moving toward a series of breakthroughs.

First, the election of Hugo Chavez as president of oil-rich Venezuela in 1998 created a situation in which a larger, potentially wealthy country could begin to link up both with Cuba and with the people’s movements hemisphere-wide to start developing an alternative to the neo-liberal, Washington Consensus model. That nations could develop their resources, trade and industry without impoverishing their workers and poor farmers, and in fact with their active and enthusiastic participation, became an idea which riveted the attention of people in every Western emisphere country, and beyond.

In quick succession, more or less left-leaning governments then began to come to power in one Latin American Country after another. The election of presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brazil (2003), Nestor and then Cristina Kirchner (2003), Tabaré Vazquez in Uruguay (2005), Evo Morales in Bolivia (2005), Michelle Bachelet in Chile (2006) Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua (2006), Rafael Correa in Ecuador (2007), Fernando Lugo in Paraguay (2008), Mauricio Funes in El Salvador (2009), all represent turns to the left in their respective countries.

In fact there are now only three major right-wing regimes in Spanish-speaking America: those of Felipe Calderon in Mexico, Alan Garcia in Peru and Alvaro Uribe in Colombia. And the Peruvian government seems to be on the ropes.

Not all these governments are equally left wing. Chavez of Venezuela, Morales of Bolivia and Correa of Venezuela consider themselves to be full-blown socialists and are implementing very radical policies: nationalizing foreign and domestic industries, radically upgrading labor laws, recognizing the rights of indigenous people and, above all, helping with massive grassroots politicization and mobilization efforts of their peoples, instead of repressing them.

The Kirchners of Argentina, Lula of Brazil, Bachelet of Chile and some of the others are in reality social democrats, not revolutionaries, in their internal policies. Not all of these governments are stably installed, and it is not impossible that there may be major reverses in one or another country, as the midterm elections in Argentina just showed. But they all have the merit of, to a greater or lesser degree, supporting the initiatives of the radicals, and of opposing US efforts to crush the Cuban Revolution.

The Bolivarian Project What are these initiatives? There are a number of projects afoot to create a horizontal integration of the Latin American and Caribbean economies as a counterpoise to the historic domination of the whole area by US corporations and imperialism, i.e. the “Washington Consensus” itself. This is seen as a realization of the dream of the liberator of South America, Simon Bolivar, whose frustrated comment when he was near death, having failed to achieve the continental unity he saw as essential, was “we have been plowing in the sea”. (Hemos arado en el mar).

Possibly more than 180 years after the liberator’s death, nearly two centuries of coups, military adventurers, senseless fratricidal wars that on occasions nearly decimated entire countries, and seemingly eternal foreign domination, the Bolivarian project is now becoming a reality. This is inspiring action by millions of people throughout the region.

The centerpiece of this Bolivarian project is ALBA – The Bolivarian Alliance for the People of Our America. The anagram means “dawn” in Spanish. ALBA is a trade and economic development cooperation organization started by Venezuela and Cuba which is now beginning to encompass the whole Latin American and Caribbean region, with some African countries also expressing an interest in joining. The current membership list of ALBA is: Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela, with more countries showing interest.

What has ALBA achieved? Its main achievement so far has been to blow the US sponsored FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas) out of the water, by offering countries of the region a much more attractive trade pact that does not undermine their sovereignty or impose on them neo-liberal policy requirements that would impoverish their people and wreck their local industries, all in the name of outside investment.

Beyond that, creative solutions have been found to the debt problems of the poorer members of ALBA. Venezuela has been providing oil at bargain prices to the member states of ALBA, while Cuba has been deploying tens of thousands of teachers, health workers and technical personnel to help with literacy and public health campaigns, and other aspects of national development. All of this is being done without privatization, without austerity measures and without opening up the countries to voracious foreign corporations. The latest ALBA project is to create a common currency for all the participating countries, tentatively to be called the SUCRE.

In most of the participating countries there is opposition to ALBA from the oligarchy and other right-wing groups. And the ALBA countries, like everybody else, are threatened by the current world financial crisis. But the growth of ALBA has now reached the point that the United States will have to find a constructive way to deal with it.

The Left and ALBA

With the exception of Cuba, none of the presidents of the ALBA countries and of the other leftward trending states are led by a Communist Party. The most radical of them combine, rather, populist, nationalist-anti-imperialist and socialist ideas. They have made, and will continue to make, various kinds of mistakes. However, almost everywhere the main communist and workers’ parties have understood the importance of the overall “Bolivarian” dynamic, and, whatever their specific disagreements with the governments in power from time to time, are giving it their support. Most of the Marxist left in Latin America sees that in the foreseeable future, participating in the Bolivarian dynamic is achieving more than isolated armed struggle or sectarian self-isolation.

US Workers and ALBA

Right-wing propaganda in our own media try to portray the Bolivarian project as an evil plot by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to somehow harm the United States. But in fact this dynamic works in favor of US workers, and thus of the great majority of our country’s people. US capitalist employers try to control the wage demands of workers here by, among other things, threatening to export jobs to low-wage countries in Latin America, frequently using this threat as a union-busting tool.

But if the Latin American countries can create their own model of development which does not depend on providing cheap labor for rampaging multinational corporations who are meanwhile laying off their employees in the United States, this game is over.

There is a long way to go yet before we have the level of international labor solidarity that would completely put a stop to these divide-and-conquer games. That is why I was so delighted to see that the AFL-CIO put out such with the Honduran workers who are facing repression for demanding the return to power of president Zelaya. The Honduran unions are organizing a general strike, for which we must find ways to provide significant solidarity.

Who wants to kill the bees?

Henri Clément — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:17:00 +0000

Translated by Shelagh Rothero

(l'Humanite) The bee may have inhabited the earth for more than 80 million years- long before Man-and has survived all the upheavals of our planet, but its present situation has become a focal point for all countries involved in intensive agriculture. Although there are many reasons which could to explain the phenomenon, the most likely protagonist is to be found in the use of phyto-pharmaceutic products and particularly powerful pesticides especially the systemic neuro-toxics used to coat the seeds, such as the well-known Gaucho or Regent.

These hyper-powerful molecules coat the grains of seed and there are dozens of grams in one hectare. They protect the root system and remain in the plant system up to the time of flowering so that destructive pests are eliminated.

The research carried out by the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) [1] and also the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) has found that the presence of these molecules in pollen, even in minute doses, is enough to have a adverse effect on untargeted insects such as the bee, and that their durability in the sun can last for many years.

Poisoning takes place at the time of planting because part of the coating is dispersed into the air and spreads out, killing the pollen gatherers, also when the plants come into flower and the bees collect the nectar and pollen.

Beekeepers fought an unprecedented battle in the media and through the courts in order to persuade the market to suspend the authorisation of Gaucho on sunflowers in 1999, on maize in 2004 and of Regent in 2004. .

In spite of four victories won in the Council of State by the beekeeping unions (notably the UNA) the phyto-sanitary firms, who were concerned about the financial consequences, used considerable means of persuasion such as lobbying and refused to accept their responsibility. Instead, they continued to promote these molecules which are poisonous for the bees and the environment.

In the meantime, faced with the high mortality rate in apiaries the length of the Rhine valley, the German government suspended authorisation for putting any of these products on the market, with the exception of colza in 2008.

The Bayer Corporation has compensated the beekeepers, refusing to recognise the harmful properties of the molecule and blaming the quality of the drilling machines.

Italy, faced with many thousands of dead colonies on the wide plain of the River Po, withdrew authorization for these products in 2008.

France, a leader in matters of authorisation, approved the use of Cruiser in maize in 2008 despite opposition from beekeepers and environmental organisations who had taken part in the Environmental Round Table [2].

The bee produces honey but also has a highly important role to play as a pollinator in the processes of biodiversity and agricultural production.

According to the last research carried out by INRA and CNRS, 35% of the available resources on the planet rely upon insect pollinators, especially the bee. This applies to 65% of our food diversity. Without the bee there would be less fruit, fewer vegetables, fewer seeds and less oil-producing plants. In the global plan, the volume of trade created by the bee is estimated to be 152 billion euros.

Farmers and Beekeepers are complementary. If a constructive dialogue were to be established between farmers and nurserymen, market gardeners or greenhouse operators, it is still a sensitive issue for those of growers of maize strongly in favour of the expanding production.

Victim spots muggers using Google maps

Xinhua — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 07:42:00 +0000

Dutch twin brothers who mugged a teenager in the northern town of Groningen were arrested after being caught on camera by a car gathering images for Google's online photo map service, police said.

The pair stole the 14-year-old boy's mobile phone and 165 euros (230 U.S. dollars) in cash last September.

'The picture was taken just a moment before the crime,' a police spokesman said.

In March, the victim recognized himself and the two robbers while surfing Google Maps, which has a 'Street View' feature allowing users to see images of buildings. The images are usually taken by a camera mounted on a car.

After an investigation by the police, one of the 24-year-old twins confessed to robbing the boy.