Pharmacists, labor and seniors oppose medicine cuts
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Representatives of labor, seniors and the California Pharmacists Association (CPhA) sent California governor Gray Davis a boxful of empty medicine bottles with labels opposing “Appalling cuts to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, sick and elderly ... leaving thousands without access to essential medicines.”
Chicagoans march for affordable housing
CHICAGO – A thousand people, mostly from Chicago’s Westside, marched on City Hall July 29 for affordable housing. The crowd, chanting wildly and jumping vibrantly, denounced their mayor for continuing to let developers destroy their neighborhoods, forcing them out of their homes, all the while making great profits.
Janitors reject poverty wages
ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 50 held a press conference here Aug. 2, announcing that two companies who provide cleaning services at the Thomas Eagleton Federal Court House have not complied with the Federal Prevailing Wage Act (FPWA) since July 1, 2001.
Prisons need strong public health care
Over the past decade, detection and prevention programs have made significant headway in stopping the spread of Hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS. In Black, Latino and other racially and nationally oppressed communities, though, both diseases are still rampant.
War on terrorism spreads to Greece
In late June, the government of Greece boasted it would soon break the 17th of November organization (17N). Then, in the Athens port of Peiraias, where the government had just imposed martial law to break the maritime strike but could not stop support demonstrations, a package blew up in the hand of a religious icon painter, the son of an Orthodox priest.
International notes
China: New security concept at ASEAN meet/France: Unions, CP protest Air France privatization/Nigeria: Women win again/Uruguay: General strike protests economic crisis/Korea: Reunification Day fete planned/Canada: Auto workers leader aids homeless
Solidarity politics top AFL-CIO meet
CHICAGO – In a strongly worded resolution, the AFL-CIO Executive Council condemned the Bush administration’s threat to use federal troops to break any strike by members of the West Coast International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) against the shipping companies belonging to the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA).
Petition call: No U.S. attack on Iraq
“We, the undersigned, resolutely oppose the Bush administration’s plan to invade, conquer and occupy Iraq.” So begins an online petition to George W. Bush, Congress and the media, initiated by Democrats.com. Since it was posted the first week in August, 7,801 people have signed the hard-hitting petition, which can be visited at www.Democrats.com.
Steelworkers: Fighting to win
LAS VEGAS – A “corporate crime wave” is crushing steelworkers and their communities, charged Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), in his fiery opening address to the 31st USWA Constitutional Convention here, August 5. And, Gerard vowed, “We’re going to fix it!”
Court ruling on detainees hailed
Civil liberties advocates say U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler’s Aug. 2 order that the Justice Department must release the names of detainees held since Sept. 11 is a significant repudiation of the Bush administration’s secret detention policies.
