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Jobless rate drops: positive trend but some cautions too

John Wojcik — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:04:00 -0500

The nation's official unemployment rate fell in January to 8.3 percent, down from December's 8.5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Private businesses said, in a separate survey, that they added 257,000 jobs. If one subtracts a 14,000 drop in government jobs, the economy actually added 243,000 jobs last month.

Heidi Shierholz, economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said the overall news was good but warned that it is too early to start partying. She said that at the current rate of improvement it would take until 2019 for unemployment rate to drop to the 5 percent pre-recession level.

Nevertheless, the country's jobless rate continued an unmistakably steady decline, dropping by 0.8 percentage points since August and to the lowest point since February 2009. The number of jobless workers dropped to 12.8 million, down from December's 13.1 million.

Disturbing, however, is the fact that the number of long-term unemployed (those out of work for 27 weeks or more) remained almost unchanged at 5.5 million, almost 43 percent of the total unemployed.

Those long-term unemployed face a loss of benefits on Feb. 29 unless Congress extends the benefits, and already the House's ruling Republicans are resisting. A conference is under way between the Senate and the House over two sharply different one-year extensions of the unemployment insurance program passed last year.

The Republican extension would slash federal benefits, impose harsh new restrictions and, the labor movement charges, essentially dismantle the program.

The GOP bill cuts in half federal benefits in the highest unemployment states, allows mandatory drug testing of claimants, makes the unemployed pay for their own re-employment services, denies benefits to people without high school diplomas or GEDs and allows states to cut benefits or divert benefit funds to other uses.

One disturbing feature in the new jobless figures released today is the fact that 1.8 million more people this month than last month are listed as "not in the labor force." This , of course, contributed to the lower unemployment figure.

Still, there were increases in jobs in many industries. Construction, for example, added 21,000 jobs, on top of a 31,000 job gain in December. Despite those real gains, however, 1.5 million construction workers remain unemployed, for an official unemployment rate of 17.7 percent in that sector.

Factories added 50,000 jobs in January, in addition to the 32,000 added in December. Last year, for the first time in a decade, factories showed an annual jobs gain. Official factory worker unemployment dropped in 2011 from 9.9 percent to 8.4 percent.

AFL-CIO President Riochard Trumka said, "The seeds of sustainable job growth are clearly present - if Republicans in Congress do not succeed in weakening the recovery.

"Republican leaders, who are admittedly unconcerned with the poor and still pressing for ill-timed austerity in Washington and state capitals, run a very real risk of putting this incipient recovery at risk.

"President Obama, by contrast," said Trumka, "has laid out a comprehensive agenda for job creation and broadly shared prosperity, rather than wealth for a few."

Photo: whitehouse.gov

Victory for women: Komen reinstates Planned Parenthood funding

Susan Webb — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:03:00 -0500

In a victory for women's health and reproductive rights, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation has reversed its decision to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood's breast cancer prevention services.

The reversal came after a firestorm of protests over the cutoff, including charges that it was a cave-in to Republican/right-wing pressure. The outrage went "viral" on Facebook, Twitter and other online social media. Twenty-six U.S. senators called on Komen to reconsider its decision, USA Today reported.

In addition, Komen affiliates around the country expressed dismay over the funding cutoff.

In a statement posted on its website today, Komen founder and CEO Nancy Brinker apologized to the American public for "recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives."

Brinker said, "We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities."

The Komen Foundation - known for its pink-ribbon symbol - has funded Planned Parenthood's breast cancer programs for years, including close to $700,000 last year. Planned Parenthood is the nation's leading provider of health services to women, especially lower income and young women. It emphasizes that its services are primarily preventative, including providing nearly 750,000 breast exams each year.

A Komen board member had told the New York Times on Wednesday that the decision to end funding for Planned Parenthood was made because of fear that an investigation of Planned Parenthood by Florida Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns would hurt Komen's credibility with donors. Stearns' investigation is suppposedly aimed at determining whether Planned Parenthood has used federal money to fund abortions. But it is seen as part of a wider right-wing campaign to disrupt and destroy Planned Parenthood.

In her statement, Brinker said the foundation's aim had been "to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation." She said Komen would "amend its criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair."

Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards hailed Komen's decision to reinstate funding, crediting "the outpouring of support for women in need of lifesaving breast cancer screening." She called it "a testament to our nation's compassion and sincerity."

"During the last week," Richards said in a statement today, "millions spontaneously joined a national conversation about lifesaving breast cancer prevention care and reinforced shared values about access to health care for all. This compassionate outcry in support of those most in need rose above political, ideological, and cultural divides, and will surely be recognized as one of our nation's better moments during a contentious political time."

She noted that "In particular, Planned Parenthood helps the Komen Foundation reach vulnerable populations - low-income women, African-American women, and Latinas - especially in rural areas and underserved communities where Planned Parenthood health centers are their only source of health care.

"With Komen Foundation grants, over the past five years, Planned Parenthood health centers provided nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams and more than 6,400 mammogram referrals. With the outpouring of support over the past week, even more women in need will receive lifesaving breast cancer care."

Photo: S. Mirk // CC 2.0

Six months after lockout, workers stage 'back to work' action at American Crystal Sugar

Steve Share — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:33:00 -0500

EAST GRAND FORKS, Minn. - Union members reported for work Feb. 1 at American Crystal Sugar's East Grand Forks, Minn., factory. Rather than going inside to their jobs, however, they remained outside the plant gates, where they were locked out six months ago to the day - and instead hollered at scabs going inside the plant.

The East Grand Forks action was one of four similar demonstrations at American Crystal Sugar factory gates on Feb. 1-2 in Hillsboro and Drayton, N.D., and East Grand Forks and Moorhead, Minn.

The company locked out 1,300 workers on Aug. 1, 2011 when they voted down its contract proposal by a 90-10 percent margin .

The workers (members of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers) spent the days leading up to Feb. 1 in organizing "back to work" actions outside factory gates.

"We're just here today to show the company and the farmers and the community that we're ready to go back to work," said Scott Ripplinger, a 28-year company worker and an ion technician. He co-chairs the solidarity committee at East Grand Forks BCTGM Local 167G, Unit 264.

In East Grand Forks, about 30 union workers stood with signs outside the plant gates as scab workers drove cars inside. "Go back scabs, go back!" they shouted.

The union's action came two days after the latest federal mediation session between the company and BCTGM ended with American Crystal Sugar continuing to insist on its July 28, 2011 contract offer-which union members voted down 90-10 percent.

"It's hard to negotiate when only one side is negotiating," said Ken Lamberson, a boiler house foreman, 16-year company veteran, and assistant head steward and co-chair of the solidarity committee.

"We truly believe it's not about money; they're out to break the union," added Sonny Collison, vice president of the East Grand Forks BCTGM local. "It's hard to accept it," he said. "You thought you were part of the factory."

Almost every car and truck driving by on U.S. 2 past the factory honked in support of the workers. "We've got a lot of community support," said Collison.

The East Grand Forks workers also expressed a profound sense of betrayal by American Crystal Sugar.

"I work there. My dad works there. My brother works there. My sister works there," said Lamberson. "There are a lot of husband-wife couples who work there. A lot of dads and sons," he added.

Six months before the lock-out, Lamberson said, the company asked him and his family members who work at American Crystal Sugar to appear in a company video, 'The Chosen Field.' "The company came to us and asked us to do this video and talk about family, tradition, and moving up the ranks," he said.

And six months later they all were locked out.

Bonnie and Jay Holter are one of the married couples who work at American Crystal Sugar's East Grand Forks factory. The Arvilla, N.D., residents even met at work. Bonnie, an ion helper, has worked 28 years at the plant. Jay, an ion technician, has worked 29 years at the plant. They raised their family of six now-grown children on union wages from American Crystal Sugar.

"We've given the best we've got to this company and this is how we are treated," Jay Holter said. "It's probably only a year and a half ago the company gave us shirts that said, 'You're the best at what you do.'"

The workers outside the plant lined up and marched as far as possible toward the security guards at the factory gates. They chanted: "What do we want? A fair contract! When do we want it? Now!" Another chant: "What does Crystal Sugar have to hide? Dirty sugar made inside."

Still another chant: "Come on Crystal, play it straight. Sit down and negotiate." Another chant: "David Berg, rich and rude. We don't like your attitude." Berg is the Crystal Sugar CEO who a few weeks ago compared the union to a "cancerous tumor."

"This is just beyond believable," said Jan Bailey of Grand Forks, an ion tech who has worked 12 years at the company. "I can't understand why Crystal is doing what they're doing. They're saying one thing and doing another. Their actions are speaking for themselves. "I'm grateful my husband doesn't work here," she said.

Bailey added, "Even though my husband is employed, it's not enough. We've almost lost our house."

Bailey said she and her husband, long-time renters, purchased their first home in 2004. "We had a chance to buy a house," she said. "Nobody saw this coming. Why would you?" Now, she fears, their house will be going into foreclosure.

The couple is also no longer able to help out their children and grandchildren financially. "We're just barely taking care of ourselves," she said.

Despite the grim challenges locked-out workers face, they retain a sense of humor. As the rally wound down and workers began to move away from the plant gates, one man quipped: "On behalf of the band and myself, I hope we passed the audition." It was a quote from John Lennon and a Beatles' recording.

Back at the BCTGM office in Grand Forks, Debra Kostrzewski worked to coordinate another round of food drives to support locked-out workers. She has worked 23 years at the company and is a quality lab foreman at the East Grand Forks plant.

"Right now, we're trying to get by," she said. "I personally feel betrayed because I enjoy my job there and I want to go back even after all this, once this lockout is over and the union is back in-and we will be back in."

"People are fighting. They're going to stay strong. They're going to continue the fight," said Local 167G President John Riskey, a Minot, N.D. resident who began working at American Crystal Sugar in 1979.

American Crystal reported record profits in the year before the contract was up for renewal, workers noted. "We should have gotten a bonus instead of a lock-out," said Lynn Frederickson, a Drayton crane operator with 40 years at the company.

Instead, workers said the company offer includes 40 pages of concessions.

"It's about power. It's about them having the power for all decisions," union Vice President Brad Nelson, a Drayton plant worker, said. "They don't want a union contract in their way."

American Crystal Sugar planned for a lockout, workers said, even before they voted on the contract. Two weeks before August 1, workers said, the company told them to take their personal tools home.

"It hit home after 40 years of seeing your husband going to work and seeing the toolbox come home," said Mavis Keena of the Drayton plant. "To have somebody go and turn their back on you is very emotional."

"Right now, it looks like it's going to be a lot longer fight than we were hoping," Riskey said. "We need as unions to fight together to put a stop to this-stand strong."

Steve Share is editor of Minneapolis Labor Review. This story was distributed by Press Associates Inc.

Photo: John Stennes/AP

Chris Rock says he’s willing to pay higher taxes

Joe Sims — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:33:00 -0500

Jesus would support taxing the rich, said President Barack Obama at this week's national prayer breakfast. The president said, "For me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus's teaching that for unto whom much is given, much shall be required."

Joining him in the spirit if not the letter of this sentiment was actor and comedian Chris Rock, who while at the Sundance Film Festival said he's willing to pay higher taxes. '"I'll pay higher taxes. I look at it this way I can pay higher taxes and people can have jobs or I can pay lower taxes and I have my kid's teacher asking me for a loan, which is true" Rock told the Associated Press.

Rock went on to compare President Obama to a father and parental figure for the country, saying that all he hoped for was "reassurance."

He criticized President Bush for going to war. "'Let's go to war ... let's bomb a country that didn't bomb us.' I never understood that one," said Rock.

President Obama in his State of the Union speech called for implementing the "Buffet rule," in which the very wealthy would pay a 30 percent tax rate like working class Americans.

The president's demand is fiercely opposed by the Republican Party.

Rock joins a growing group of entertainers who have called for supporting greater fairness in tax policy. in 2011 singer John Legend said ,""People fought to give me - a millionaire - a tax cut this year. I didn't need it. And all the other millionaires didn't need it either."

Actor Matt Damon holds similar views, says the Washington Post: "Recently, the 'Contagion' star waded into the tax debate, telling interviewer Nicholas Ballasy that our current tax structure is "criminal" in the benefits that it provides for the wealthy.

Rock has also taken on the anti-tax-the-rich tea party, comparing them to racist children. Rock told Esquire, "Kids always act up the most before they go to sleep. And when I see the tea party and all this stuff, it actually feels like racism's almost over. Because this is the last - this is the act-up before the sleep. They're going crazy. They're insane. You want to get rid of them - and the next thing you know, they're fucking knocked out. And that's what's going on in the country right now."

Photo: keegstra // CC 2.0

Pakistan generals profit from mayhem, communists say

Teresa Albano — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:53:00 -0500

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said this week that U.S. forces would end their combat role in Afghanistan in 2013, ostensibly ending the 12-year war there. With financial and budget crises in Europe and the United States, war spending has become a major issue among the NATO allies.

In a recent analysis, the Communist Party of Pakistan says the Obama administration is interested in working out a political settlement in Afghanistan "in order to cut down its colossal expenditures there."

A U.S.-friendly government in Kabul is one of the White House goals, the party says. But that would mean a big blow to Pakistan's military-industrial complex, which is profiting mightily from "jihad dividends," says the statement.

The statement, issued by the party's international department, paints a picture of two power centers in Pakistan: the military and the civilian government.

This "tussle among its top institutions" has grievous consequences for Pakistan, Afghanistan and the region, the party says.

Despite withholding some $700 million from Pakistan last summer, the U.S. has over the past decades supported Pakistan with billions of dollars in military aid.

"Under U.S. imperialism's patronage, for the last 40 years or so, almost all five-star generals and major generals have become billionaires," says the Pakistan CP. "Down to the rank of major, they have become millionaires."

The party calls the Pakistani military an "industrial and business corporation," in direct competition with the civilian government, which the military seeks to control.

These financial interests have fueled the policy that supports Taliban extremists and other shady networks in Pakistan and the region, the party suggests.

The reason the military supports mayhem is also found in its attitude towards India, according to the statement. The civilian government wants to normalize relations with its neighbor, while the military wants to justify its budget by keeping alive security fears over Kashmir, and the perceived encirclement of Pakistan by India. (India is playing an enhanced role in Afghanistan and that means Pakistan would be surrounded by the military's long-time enemy.)

However, there may be agreement between Pakistan's elected government and the military in one area: U.S. war threats towards Iran.

The Pakistani party suggests that - as in Pakistan with its two power centers - the military (along with extremist religious forces) and the civilian government (that includes the presidency and Parliament), there are two power centers in the United States regarding Iran. One is the White House and the other is the Pentagon, they say.

In their view, the Pentagon is seeking logistical support and help from the Pakistan army in the wake of possible military action against Iran. On the other hand, the party says, Pakistan's civilian government is trying to tactfully maneuver the White House to divert any impending U.S. military action against Iran.

While it's not clear how the generals will respond to Pentagon pressure, there is significant possibility they will strongly object.

Much of Pakistan's current crisis over Afghanistan is directly related to Cold War politics and the United States unrelenting drive for military and economic supremacy over any rival. U.S. and Pakistan formed an alliance during the 1980s to build up far-right forces cloaked in religion to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Communications workers endorse Obama

Mark Gruenberg — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:43:00 -0500

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The Communications Workers' executive board voted Jan. 31 to endorse President Obama for re-election this fall. CWA President Larry Cohen made the announcement just before introducing Vice President Joe Biden to the union's legislative-political conference in Washington.

The endorsement was not unexpected. In conference calls among union activists every two weeks and online since last summer, the CWA had asked its members to cast electronic ballots in the presidential race. The results were 66 percent for Obama, 20 percent for an unnamed Republican nominee, and 14 percent neutral or undecided, Communications Director Candice Johnson said. She did not have raw vote totals.

CWA becomes the latest large union to commit to Obama's re-election. Others include the United Food and Commercial Workers and Service Employees International Union. Steelworkers President Leo Gerard endorsed Obama in his keynote address to his union's convention last year.

The AFL-CIO Executive Council, which includes both Cohen and Gerard, is expected to issue a formal presidential endorsement by its March meeting in Florida. SEIU and UFCW are Change To Win unions. That organization has yet to endorse.

CWA's statement praised Obama but also took hard shots at the current GOP leader, former Massachusetts Governor and Bain Capital CEO Mitt Romney.

"On the issues that matter most to working people, President Obama is on our side," the statement said. "We need leaders who recognize that income inequality and wage declines are serious problems that must be solved," as Obama does, it added.

By contrast, the GOP candidates, including Romney, "made clear working families should be on their own" on a whole host of issues. And Romney, while heading Bain, "parachuted in" to take over firms, take big profits "and put average Americans out of work." CWA reminded listeners that Romney recently said, "I like to fire people."

The bad GOP record "is especially true" on workers' rights, the union stated. "No Republican candidate stood up for the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively. Judge Romney by the company he keeps: New Jersey GOP Gov. Chris Christie, who set out to strip CWA public workers of their bargaining rights, is one of Romney's biggest supporters."

CWA, in closing, promised to work to re-elect Obama and "members of Congress who support the growing movement to restore democracy in the U.S." Cohen spent much of the legislative conference pounding the podium against what he called "corpocracy" - the takeover of the U.S. political process by unlimited, secret corporate campaign contributions, legalized by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2010.

Iran sanctions are no solution, says solidarity organization

Special to PeoplesWorld.org — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:25:00 -0500

The UK-based Committee for the Defense of the Iranian People's Rights (CODIR) today condemned the European Union move to impose sanctions upon the Islamic Republic of Iran as effectively a declaration of war upon the Iranian people.

The organization, which has campaigned for 30 years against human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic, has been a prominent voice in insisting that dialogue is the only way forward in the current crisis. The sanctions imposed by the EU are seen as a provocative escalation of an already unstable situation which could be a precursor to military intervention by the West.

CODIR Assistant General Secretary Jamshid Ahmadi made clear the position of human rights and peace organizations in relation to Iran, stating:

"We condemn the Iranian regime for its human rights violations, its ongoing repression of religious minorities and the regime's persecution of human rights activists. However, embargoing Iranian oil through the de-facto ban on trade with Iran's central bank ultimately has a negative impact upon the ordinary people of Iran."

CODIR is also concerned that the reality of Western sanctions and the threat of military intervention will hand the regime a propaganda coup ahead of parliamentary elections in March. "These sanctions are a boost for the Iranian regime in advance of the elections in March," said Ahmadi.

"There is no proof of a nuclear weapons program, only secret service suspicions and allegations. What we really need is the escalation of human rights dialogue and serious negotiations for a nuclear-free Middle East."

CODIR is unequivocal in its condemnation of any external interference in the affairs of the Islamic Republic, stressing that it is for the people of Iran to determine their own future. Human rights, peace and trades union organizations must show solidarity in assisting the people of Iran to establish a truly democratic state, the organization says.

The possibility of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear installations, making it one step removed from a direct U.S. intervention, has long been considered a tactical option by the West, and CODIR insists that the sanctions campaign makes such an attack more likely.

"We will continue to do all we can to support the people of Iran," said Ahmadi, "and we are looking to the peace movements across the globe to do everything they can to avert a conflict. The ordinary people of Iran will certainly be the first victims of sanctions or a war but many others may follow."

CODIR has declared its full support for demonstrations taking place on Saturday Feb. 4 in many cities across the world.

Biden: GOP doesn’t understand middle class

Mark Gruenberg — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:14:00 -0500

WASHINGTON - As far as Joe Biden is concerned, the Republican Party "doesn't understand the middle class."

In pointed words uttered in an often-conversational tone, the vice president told more than 700 unionists at the Communications Workers' Legislative-Political Conference that the woolly thinking on the other side of the partisan aisle applies to both its congressional leaders and its presidential hopefuls.

Biden's Feb. 2 speech highlighted the final day of the three-day meeting in D.C. CWAers gathered from around the nation to lobby lawmakers for four key causes.

The four are: Reversing the impact of the Supreme Court's two-year-old "corporations are people" ruling that let loose the flood of campaign cash; a financial transactions tax to force Wall Street to help pay for recovery from the Great Recession; union voting rights at airlines and railroads, and; taxing firms that move call centers offshore while giving a tax break to firms that bring call center jobs back.

Biden repeated the administration's stand for a 20 percent tax credit for all firms - not just call centers - that return jobs from overseas, coupled with withdrawal of tax deductions for moving jobs out of the U.S. He did not discuss the other three ideas.

Most of his speech alternated between jabs at GOP leaders - whom Biden called smart, even sometimes likable, but completely misguided - and defense of the Obama administration's actions. Biden said he would talk "about how to make the state of our unions stronger," but never elaborated.

Biden's defense came just after CWA President Larry Cohen said the union's executive board endorsed the Obama-Biden ticket for re-election this fall. Obama received 66 percent of rank-and-file votes in electronic and phone balloting.

That led to a repeated chant of "Four more years!" when Cohen escorted Biden to the podium. Then the vice president got started, repeatedly interrupted by applause.

"I don't think those other guys understand what a great struggle it is to get into the middle class, but that families have seen that shot evaporate," he said.

"Being in the middle class is not a matter of income. It's where you can own your own home, in a decent neighborhood, make sure your kids do good in school so you can send them off to community college, a trade school, or college, where you can take care of your parents" if necessary, "and where you can put enough away" for retirement "so your kids won't have to take care of you."

GOP presidential hopefuls - specifically former Massachusetts governor and Bain Capital CEO Mitt Romney and ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich - "don't get it," Biden said. Neither does Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kent.

"That bargain has been broken," Biden said of the middle class description he provided. "The Republicans don't have an idea" of "how to fix" the problem, shown by rising U.S. productivity and declining median income during the Bush years, he added.

"They're not bad guys, but they don't realize there's a problem," Biden explained.

Biden extended his criticism to Republican governors in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, and Indiana, who have shoved anti-worker measures through their GOP-run legislatures. "Instead of realizing the bargain has been broken, the Scott Walkers, John Kasichs, Rick Scotts, and the Mitch Danielses go out and look for scapegoats - the unions," Biden declared. Walker governs Wisconsin; Kasich runs Ohio, Scott heads Florida, and Daniels signed a law on Feb. 1 making Indiana a right-to-work state.

Republican stands "aren't gaffes," as sometimes portrayed, Biden warned. Republicans, for once, are open "about their beliefs" against workers and unions.

The GOP also must respond to Obama's record of pulling the nation out of the recession, withdrawing troops from Iraq, setting a permanent policy, and starting the withdrawal from Afghanistan and rescuing major enterprises, the vice president said.

"We inherited a country where the economy was in free fall, with four million jobs lost before we came in and another four million lost before we could get the first major pieces of our program in place. Now, in 22 months, we've created three million jobs.

"The auto industry was on the brink of liquidation. Now GM is number one again, the company has paid back their federal loans and I just spoke to the chairman of Ford, who said they're investing $16 billion in new plants - in the U.S." That got another big cheer.

"The best comparison I can think of is that Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive," Biden said, to another cheer. "This is a metaphor for a lot more."

The nation would eventually recognize the GOP's hostility to the middle class, the vice president predicted, and re-elect the Obama-Biden ticket. But the veep admitted one other reason would mark the difference between his boss and the Republican presidential nominee. Quoting the late Boston Mayor Kevin White, Biden said: "Don't compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the Alternative."

Photo: "Biden shakes hands with a student after speaking at Central Bucks High School West in Doylestown, P.A." Alex Brandon/AP Photos

U.S. steelworkers campaign to free Colombian political prisoners

W. T. Whitney Jr. — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:05:00 -0500

The U.S.-Canadian United Steelworkers union is working with British unions to free David Ravelo and other Colombian political prisoners.

"We are working in close conjunction with Justice for Colombia in Great Britain on the political prisoners campaign," says USW Senior Counsel Dan Kovalik.

Increasingly, politically-motivated incarceration threatens Colombian unionists, human rights workers, and political activists. They are already too familiar with killings and disappearances at the hands of armed enforcers. International solidarity with victims has grown over recent decades, with the labor movement in particular taking on a prominent role in defending human rights in Colombia. British trade unions have been instrumental in bringing the fact of 7,500 Colombian political prisoners to the world's attention.

In 2008, the U.S. and Canadian United Steelworkers combined with the British union known as Unite the Union (itself the merger between British Amicus and Transportation & General Workers Unions) to establish the world's largest union, with 3.4 million workers. It's known as Workers Uniting. The planning agreement for that merger, signed in Ottawa in 2007, outlined five overall objectives. One identified "Projects [that] might include, but are not limited to, support of Columbia's trade union movement in the face of continued attacks on labor and human rights." (Other projects would involve "partner unions in Africa," ship breakers in India, and outreach in China.)

British unions created the Justice for Colombia group, notable for pushing Colombian authorities to honor prisoners' rights, and the USW has joined the Justice for Colombia group as well. One of the priorities for Justice for Colombia and Workers Uniting is the freeing of political prisoner David Ravelo, and they have called on the Colombian government - as well as its chief military patron, the U.S. - to "take all measures necessary to protect his life and the life of his family."

As USW Senior Counsel Daniel Kovalik explains, "Mr. Ravelo, a human rights activist with CREDHOS (a partner of Christian Aid) in Barrancabermeja as well as a former leader of the Patriotic Union - a political party which has suffered literally thousands of assassinations over the years - has been held in jail, without charge, for 14 months now." Kovalik further explains that "before being sent to prison, Mr. Ravelo received numerous threats against his life."

Ravelo once publicized a video showing ex-President Alvaro Uribe hobnobbing with paramilitaries. Ravelo had directed the local branch of the Movement of Victims of State Crimes, helped build the left-leaning Alternative Democratic Pole electoral coalition, and once served as Barrancabermeja city councilor. He was a member of the Communist Party's Central Committee. The Catholic Church honored Ravelo for 35 years of dedication to human rights.

Interviewed in April 2011, he said of his jailing, "They are getting even for my longstanding, relentless work in defense of victims and for my unbreakable position against injustice."

The pretext for Ravelo's detention was conspiracy alleged in the murder 21 years ago of mayoral candidate David Nuñez Cala. That accusation came from imprisoned paramilitary chieftain Mario Jaimes Mejía, who reportedly is seeking a reduced sentence.

USW solidarity with Colombian political prisoners, via Workers Uniting, is no surprise. The USW had long opposed the recently approved U.S.-Colombia free trade pact, condemned Drummond Corporation impunity in the deaths of coal mine workers, and sued Coca Cola for complicity in the murders of unionists employed by Colombian affiliates.

USW Senior Counsel Dan Kovalik has travelled to Barrancabermeja and met with David Ravelo's human rights group CREDHOS on several occasions. Questioned via email in connection with this article, he replied:

"While there may be 7,500 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Colombia, Mr. Ravelo's case is particularly compelling as he is a leading human rights advocate being held without charge. We believe that his release would be a crucial part in the effort to begin releasing the thousands of political prisoners in that country."

Kovalik added: "The U.S. labor movement has been unanimous in its opposition to U.S. military assistance to Colombia since 2000 in light of its abysmal labor and human rights practices which, among other things, has claimed the lives of over 2900 unionists - a figure unprecedented in the world. I believe that an important step now is for U.S. unions to join the voices of labor, human rights and other social groups in Colombia who are calling for a peaceful, negotiated settlement to the armed conflict in that country. That is probably the greatest contribution we can make to Colombia at this time, and the release of political prisoners is a key step in this direction."

Photo: David Ravelo, via Peace Brigades International - Colombia.

GOP forces anti-labor provisions into transport bills

John Wojcik — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:38:00 -0500

Unions are mobilizing this week to fight anti-labor provisions the Republicans have inserted into major transportation bills. The GOP is pushing its agenda, labor unions say, by inserting anti-worker measures into a variety of bills.

The main targets of the right wing efforts are bills designed to guarantee air safety and security and to create thousands of jobs in construction, revamping of highways, and the rebuilding and improvement of the nation's airports.

Some 19 unions this week issued a statement demanding passage of a "clean" bill reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration. That bill is just one of the three bills anti labor lawmakers in the House re-wrote this week.

Behind closed doors even Democratic Senators agreed to changes in rules concerning union recognition and decertification on airlines and railroads that the labor movement is very unhappy about.

That rewrite, an attempt to end a fight over union recognition votes at airlines and railroads, ended up leaving workers and their unions with the short end of the stick.

The House GOP, doing the bidding of Delta Airline lobbyists, tried this week to re-impose a rule requiring unions to get 50 percent plus one of the entire eligible pool of workers to achieve recognition, with non-voters counted as "no" votes. Right now, a majority of those voting is sufficient for recognition.

In return for allowing unions to win recognition by just a simple majority of ballots cast, Senate Democrats yielded to the anti-worker House GOP and agreed that unions must get election recognition cards from 50 percent plus one of all workers in the pool before they can get a recognition vote. In the case of a runoff election management gets a second chance, under the "compromise," to overturn the original decision by the majority of workers that they want union representation. A "no union" option can be inserted onto the runoff ballot.

"An aviation safety and security bill is no place to impose unrelated and controversial labor provisions that will ultimately harm both airline and railroad workers," the 19 union leaders say in their statement. "The proposed Railway Labor Act changes would drastically rewrite a statute crafted by labor-management cooperation that has not been changed for over 75 years without the agreement of both employer and employee representatives."

"Airline and rail workers would suffer big losses because you could jettison contracts, cut collective bargaining rights and place legal hurdles in the way of workers trying to gain a voice at work," said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, by phone. Cohen, whose union represents airline attendants was one of the 19 signing the statement. He characterized the concession by Senate Democrats as "a sellout."

The GOP run House is scheduled to vote on the FAA bill Feb. 3 and the Senate is scheduled to vote on Feb. 6.

The new House GOP-adjusted version of another bill, the highway mass transit bill, is not only anti-union but actually anti-public transportation, according to the Amalgamated Transit Union.

The House Transportation Committee did its damage to the highway mass transit bill this morning, the union's president said.

"The two year Senate highway bill is fine," said ATU President Larry Hanley, "but the 5-year Hose GOP bill recalls Reagan era anti-transit policy."

"The two bills (the House and Senate versions) are a lesson in contrast," Hanley said. "The House Republican bill would effectively coerce cash strapped governments into privatizing their transit systems. It is an early Valentine to foreign national corporations who operate U.S. transit systems and who would reap a financial bonanza."

The Senate version improves passenger safety and security and lets transit systems develop a well trained workforce, according to Hanley. He also said he liked the portions of the Senate bill that allow large transit systems to use federal dollars not just to keep their operations going but also to buy needed equipment.

Failure to meet the needs of mass transit systems is not the only objection unions and others have to the House version. They note that the GOP version also includes extraneous issues that have nothing to do with highways and mass transit, among them approval for oil drilling in the Arctic and building the Keystone XL pipeline.

A third GOP initiative in the House this week that labor opposes was a move to slip into the highway construction bill a clause that would allow extra-long tractor-trailers, weighing up to 97,000 pounds, to travel on all U.S. highways. Unions say the measure would end up killing workers and endangering public safety.

Highway safety advocates have already joined Teamster President James Hoffa in condemning the Republican attempt to allow triple tractor-trailers on the highways.

"Once again, we have the trucking lobby in line with the Republicans in pursuit of profits while pushing safety aside," Hoffa said at a press conference yesterday. He said the trailers are the "equivalent of railway trains on the roads" and that "with larger and larger trucks trying to enter our highways on ramps built for smaller trucks, the probability of crashes increases."

Photo: Workers install seats in new terminal at the Sacramento International Airport. The $1 billion terminal, which opened in October 2011, created 2,400 jobs during the 2 1/2 year construction project. It was designed to expand the airport's capacity to 16 million passengers a year. Rich Pedroncelli/AP

Fighting for immigrant rights in Alabama: a video interview

Scott Marshall — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:35:00 -0500

Last June Alabama passed one of the most draconian anti-immigrant laws in the country. Immigrant rights activists describe it as Arizona's bitter law on steroids. (Interview below)

A University of Alabama study estimates that the law has already cost the state's economy an estimated $10.8 billion. This includes lost investments, an estimated $350 million in lost taxes, and the costs of police, judicial and jail services. The argument that the state would save money on health and education services has clearly been shone to be bogus.

Fighting for Immigrant Rights in Alabama

Photo: Scott Marshall/PW

Victory for equal marriage in the Evergreen State

Tim Wheeler — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:39:00 -0500

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Celebration erupted in the Washington State Senate Jan. 29 as Senators approved by a vote of 28 to 21 a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. Four Republicans joined 24 Democrats in voting yes.

Passage of the bill in the House is considered certain and Gov. Chris Gregoire has promised to sign it. Final approval will make Washington State the 7^th state in the nation to legalize gay marriages, conferring all the rights and privileges enjoyed by heterosexual marriage.

"A lot of people are just stunned, particularly people my own age and older, to think this day would actually come in our lifetime," said Sen. Ed Murray, the author of the historic bill. Murray, himself gay, was in the Senate chamber with his longtime partner, Michael Shiosaki. They have known each other for 21 years. At a celebratory press conference they announced that they plan to marry if the bill becomes law.

Josh Friedes, Executive Director of Marriage Equality, a statewide organization, part of Equal Rights Washington hailed the vote. "Equal Rights Washington worked to engage tens of thousands of people in telling their stories to legislators of why marriage matters," he told the World in a phone interview from his Seattle office. "We have always found that people's personal stories are transformative. This was very much a bipartisan vote and we had support from all sectors of Washington, from labor unions to big business, from the faith community to organizations representing people of color."

Before they celebrate, he added, "first the bill has to pass the House and be signed by the Governor. We expect to be successful. A majority of the House sponsored the bill and the Governor is a strong supporter."

The equal marriage rights movement is anticipating an effort by opponents to place a referendum on the ballot repealing the legislation in the November 6 election. They have 90 days to gather the 120,577 signatures to qualify. Friedes said the equal marriage rights movement is already preparing to fight to defend the law at the ballot box.

Like similar equal marriage laws approved in Connecticut and New Hampshire, the equal marriage law here would take the place of a civil union or domestic partnership law approved in Washington State in 2007. The Sec. of State will send notices to each partner currently registered as domestic partners informing them that they have up to a year to get married.

If they fail to meet that deadline, the state will automatically convert their partnership to marriage. Domestic partners who are 62 or older are exempted on grounds that some couples may face loss of benefits if legally married.

"We thought it was important to end domestic partnerships at some point so we don't end up with two different statuses," Sen. Murray said. One fear is that if domestic partnership is preserved, enemies could argue that gay couples enjoy an option that heterosexual couples are denied, Murray explained.

Ron Paul’s neo-Nazi ties, Romney alliance exposed

Blake Deppe — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:09:00 -0500

When hacking activist group Anonymous began Operation Blitzkrieg - a mission to take down the white supremacist American Third Party - they were surprised by what they found: a direct connection with GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul.

A document dump currently made public on a site by Anonymous includes private forum messages, emails, and organizational notes by the neo-Nazi A3P. While sifting through this information, the hacktivists uncovered numerous links to Paul. The Republican presidential hopeful met with several A3P members on a regular basis, participated in conference calls with their board of directors, and utilized racists to bolster his presidential campaign.

Anonymous also hacked into the private email account of A3P webmaster Jamie Kelso - a former Scientologist and owner of several German Nazi forums. They found coordinated meetings between Kelso and Paul. One was in the form of a January 2011 email from Kelso to a fellow A3P member, in which Kelso stated, "I'm going to the Conservative Political Action Conference with Bill Johnson. Bill and I will be meeting with Ron and Rand Paul. I have a teleconference call with [them] tonight. Much more, later. Things are starting to happen, thanks to folks like you."

William Johnson, who Kelso mentioned, is a corporate lawyer and chairman of A3P. In 1985, he proposed a constitutional amendment that would revoke the U.S. citizenship of every non-white American.

"According to these messages, Ron Paul has regularly met with many A3P members, even engaging in conference calls with their board of directors," Anonymous declared in a statement. "Ron Paul's racist politics and affiliations are already well-known, being viciously anti-immigrant, anti-abortion, and against gay marriage - not to mention having authored the racist 'Ron Paul Papers,' and receiving financial support from other white power groups."

Though accusation of racist and Nazi ties have come Paul's way over the years, Paul has gone the predictable route in response, by issuing denials and feigning ignorance to any purported neo-Nazi connections.

And another of Paul's unpleasant alliances has come into the public spotlight - according to a report by the Washington Post, Paul has formed a strategic alliance with fellow GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

Indeed, while the current GOP candidates are constantly throwing verbal attacks at one another, Paul and Romney haven't really said a bad thing about each other. That's because they've been friends since 2008. But it's more than that.

This alliance is by and large a win-win scenario for either candidate: If Paul's bid for the presidency fails, Romney's presidency would allow for Paul to still have some degree of authoritative control - the ability to play a role in shaping policy, rather than mere opinion. For Romney's part, this would be a chance to gain extra support from the pro-Paul subgroups of the Republican Party, as well as many of Paul's supporters who would approve of this alliance. Essentially, accomodating Paul could unify Republican voters against President Obama.

What Paul will say in response to Anonymous' revelatory discovery about his racist connections is anyone's guess.

Photo: Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photos

Romney’s Bain behind airline plan to slash jobs and pensions

John Wojcik — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:05:00 -0500

American Airlines announced yesterday that it will take the advice of Mitt Romney's firm, Bain Capital, and lay off 13,000 workers, end the pension plans for its retirees and for all those remaining and take away the health insurance of its retirees.

The announcement came only seven days after American Airlines hired Bain Capital to guide it through a bankruptcy procedure for which the airline had filed last November.

Bain Capital recommended job cuts and pension cuts even as Romney, in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, continues to claim he has unique business experience as a job creator.

"He's talking about creating jobs," declared Transport Workers Union President James Little, but "he's not a job creator. He's a job cremator." Little's union represents 24,000 workers whose jobs and benefits are threatened in the bankruptcy process underway at American.

Only three days ago it surfaced that American had contributed less than $7 million to its pension fund, out of a normally required $100 million for the month of January.

"I have a hard time sitting back," said Little, "when American Airlines is taking hard-earned money to pay $525,000 a month to have Bain come in and tell them how to cut heads."

No one in the public relations office at American Airlines was willing to comment and the airline did not return calls.

Pension plans have, for many years, been standard on U.S. airlines but American claimed yesterday on a new website it has set up that it can no longer afford to pay for them.

The unions have long claimed that American is hiding assets, including substantial ones it has overseas.

In a move seen as validation of that claim, the Obama administration yesterday clamped liens of $91 million on the airline's property. Joshua Gotbaum, Obama's appointee to the directorship of the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., said that "before American takes such a drastic action as killing the pension plans of 130,000 employees and retirees, it needs to show there is no better alternative."

The airline's announcement yesterday said that it must cut labor costs by 20 percent. CEO Thomas Horton said the company lost $884 million in the first nine months of 2011, and $904 million for December alone. He said it lost $11 billion since 2001. Gotbaum argued, however, that the company has failed to provide even basic financial details to back up these claims.

"This is an absolute outrage," said Laura Glading, president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. "There's nothing here that is even remotely acceptable."

Little vowed his union would fight. The TWU represents mechanics and bag handlers, 40 percent of whom would be laid off. TWU members and pickets followed Romney around the state of Florida this week while he was campaigning and they plan to be at many of his future events across the country.

The company is counting on protecting itself under bankruptcy law, however, which allows it to ask a bankruptcy judge to throw out existing labor contracts and to impose company demands on the workers.

Unions point out that if the disaster facing the company were as severe as American says it is, the airline would not be going ahead with orders it has placed for hundreds of new aircraft. Although the bankruptcy judge has not yet approved those orders American has been allowed to take delivery of some new jets.

Photo: Back in 2007, American Airlines pilots marched in protest outside AMR headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. The three unions representing American's employees wanted to make up for double-digit wage and benefit cuts back in 2003. In 2007 they argued that their sacrifices saved the nation's largest airline from bankruptcy. LM Otero, File/AP

GOP forces anti-labor provisions into transport bills

John Wojcik — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:14:00 -0500

Behind closed doors even Democratic Senators agreed to changes in rules concerning union recognition and decertification on airlines and railroads that the labor movement is very unhappy about.

That rewrite, an attempt to end a fight over union recognition votes at airlines and railroads, ended up leaving workers and their unions with the short end of the stick.

"Airline and rail workers would suffer big losses because you could jettison contracts, cut collective bargaining rights and place legal hurdles in the way of workers trying to gain a voice at work," said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, by phone. Cohen, whose union represents airline attendants, was one of the 19 signing the statement. He characterized the concession by Senate Democrats as "a sellout."

The GOP run House is scheduled to vote on the FAA bill Feb. 3 and the Senate is scheduled to vote on Feb. 6.

The new House GOP-adjusted version of another bill, the highway mass transit bill, is not only anti-union but actually anti-public transportation, according to the Amalgamated Transit Union.

The House Transportation Committee did its damage to the highway mass transit bill this morning, the union's president said.

"The two year Senate highway bill is fine," said ATU President Larry Hanley, "but the 5-year Hose GOP bill recalls Reagan era anti-transit policy." The House bill includes some issues that have little to do with highways or mass transit including approval for oil drilling in the Arctic and building the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Senate version improves passenger safety and security and lets transit systems develop a well-trained workforce, according to Hanley. He also said he liked the portions of the Senate bill that allow large transit systems to use federal dollars not just to keep their operations going but also to buy needed equipment.

Failure to meet the needs of mass transit systems is not the only objection unions and others have to the House version. They note that the GOP version includes extraneous issues that have nothing to do with highways and mass transit, among them approval for oil drilling in the Arctic and building the Keystone XL pipeline.

Highway safety advocates have already joined Teamster President James Hoffa in condemning the Republican attempt to allow triple tractor-trailers on the highways.

Don Cornelius, creator of “Soul Train,” dead at 75

Joe Sims — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:24:00 -0500

Don Cornelius, creator of the iconic "Soul Train" television show, was found dead on Wednesday at his California home. He was 75.

Cornelius founded and produced the dance and music show in Chicago and turned it into a national and international sensation.

Significantly, "Soul Train" was financed by Cornelius himself, who provided first-time opportunities for African American artists and cultural workers both on and behind the camera.

Henry Louis Gates describing Cornelius' broadcast beginnings, says, "With his own money, Cornelius shot a pilot for a dance show, a black version of American Bandstand. He shopped the pilot to sponsors; most expressed no interest. But a manager at the Chicago-based Sears, Roebuck department store chain proved an exception, as he saw the show as an opportunity to boost record sales. With Sears's sponsorship, WCIU allowed Cornelius to broadcast his show on the network. Cornelius memorably named his invention Soul Train."

"Dick Clark's 'American Bandstand' originally was all white and even when integrated under a protest led by the West Philadelphia Action Committee, a grass roots civil rights youth group, the show forbade black and whites to dance together," remarked Communist Party USA leader Jarvis Tyner, who participated in the effort to desegregate the dance show. "'Soul Train,' on the other hand was always open to everyone," Tyner said

Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton, who also got his first national television exposure on "Soul Train," also pointed to the show's huge influence on desegregating television shows. "When 'Soul Train' started," he said, "there weren't many black people on TV. Cornelius changed that in a major way."

Cornelius's early success was the start of one of television's longest running shows. "With Soul Train, which made its debut on one Chicago TV station in 1970 and spread quickly to dozens of American markets, Cornelius created the first black-owned nationally syndicated TV franchise," writes Dan Charnas for NPR.

Chamas continues, "Cornelius insisted on as much black presence behind the cameras as he induced in front of them, and he was one of the first black moguls to expand his brand beyond its origins: producing records (Cornelius was the executive producer behind the bubblegum-soul group Shalamar) and, eventually, award shows."

The show moved to Los Angeles in 1971. It had a 35-year run.

Commenting on Cornelius, historian Gerald Horne said, "By exposing a wider audience to black music and dance, he played a useful role in fighting the dehumanization of white supremacy."

"Cornelius's signature power-fisted ending, wishing the TV audience 'Love, Peace and Soul,' lives on," said Tyner.

Arizona next battleground in workers’ rights war

Mark Gruenberg — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:13:00 -0500

PHOENIX - Move over, Wisconsin. Stand aside, Ohio. Yield the field, Michigan. Arizona is the next big battleground in the national right-wing-big business war on workers, unions, and their rights and standard of living.

And Arizona unions, preparing for the struggle, launched a pre-emptive offensive against the right-wing machine last November.

Neither the state AFL-CIO's efforts nor the special election recall loss in November of a key radical right ally, the GOP state senate president, stopped GOP Gov. Jan Brewer from introducing a package of anti-worker legislation that sometimes makes other Right Wing-influenced states look moderate.

The special election win, however, gives Arizona unionists hope they can beat Brewer's schemes, at least at the polls this November, say two unionists, Joe Gosiger and Joseph Seelye, attending the Communications Workers of America Legislative-Political Conference in D.C.

That's because unions and grassroots organizers seized on that triumph and the organizing leading up to it - organizing that successfully registered and mobilized new voters despite Arizona's eight-year-old "voter ID" law - as a model for how to motivate voters, especially Spanish-speakers, and get them to the polls, the two told PAI.

Brewer presented her package to the strongly Republican state legislature on Feb. 1 for a state senate committee hearing. Among her proposals:

* Outlawing all state and local collective bargaining with unions representing public workers, on all topics. Even Wisconsin exempted fire fighters and police; Brewer didn't. CWA, the Service Employees and the Fire Fighters represent many Arizonans.

* Banning checkoff of union dues, via automatic payroll deductions, from workers' paychecks. The legislature approved Brewer's dues checkoff ban last year, said Phoenix native Gosiger, the CWA District 7 rep.

But a state court judge bounced it as discriminatory because Brewer's law said Fire Fighters and police could still use checkoff while others could not. So Brewer is now trying to ban checkoff for everyone. The Right Wing "went after the Fire Fighters and we got caught in the crossfire," Seelye says.

* Banning compensation of public workers for time taken, as shop stewards or union officers, to handle such things as grievances, arbitration, or bargaining.

* Eliminating civil service protections for state workers in return for raises. "She proposed that if you're willing to give up your civil service rights, you'd get a five percent raise," while everyone else would suffer a wage freeze, explained Gosiger.

But since many of the state workers to whom Brewer offered the money bait were long-term veterans, they refused, Gosiger added. They didn't want to be suddenly out of jobs at supervisors' or politicians' whims.

* A ban on accepting federal funds for construction projects if the contractors have signed a project labor agreement, guaranteeing worker rights and grievance procedures in return for a fixed price, wages, and construction schedules.

* Restrictions on rights to peaceably assemble and demonstrate.

Brewer was quite blunt about what she wanted to do. Last November, she told a conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council - the right-wing business-funded cabal that produced model anti-worker measures used nationwide in the Right Wing's war - that "business would not tolerate" limits state law puts on government's power over its workers.

Brewer's unveiling of her plan to the ALEC confab didn't surprise Seelye, the Association of Flight Attendants government affairs committee chair from Tempe. He says much of the right-wing group's leadership and ideas come from Arizona. "A lot of their anti-union, anti-labor, and voter suppression legislation took what we have in Arizona and tweaked it to make it even more repressive," he explained.

Brewer unveiled most of her schemes at her ALEC session on Nov. 29, and the state fed launched a pre-emptive strike that day with a report showing the group's influence in the state legislature.

"Corporate America sees an opportunity to severely weaken or eliminate unions and ALEC is working with conservative lawmakers in Arizona to make this happen," Rebekah Friend, executive director and secretary-treasurer of the Arizona AFL-CIO, said then.

"The truth needs to be told about ALEC and its harmful impact on middle class working families in our state," Friend added. The state fed and People for the American Way also released a report detailing ALEC's secret influence in Arizona.

Cyndi Chacon, a bookkeeper and member of Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 30, after discussing several of Brewer's proposals at the November press conference, added that: "Through shadowy organizations like ALEC, large corporations are using their vast financial resources and power to take political control of our democracy."

Komen vs. Planned Parenthood: another attack on women

PW Editorial Board — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:09:00 -0500

Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading provider of health services to women, has been a pet target of the Republicans and their far-right extremist pals.

Now, the nation's most prominent breast cancer advocacy group, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation - known for its pink ribbon symbol - has announced it is cutting off its funding of Planned Parenthood for the breast health services it provides.

Planned Parenthood provides nearly 750,000 breast exams each year.

The New York Times reports: "John D. Raffaelli, a Komen board member and Washington lobbyist, said Wednesday that the decision to cut off money to 17 of the 19 Planned Parenthood affiliates it had supported was made because of the fear that an investigation of Planned Parenthood by Representative Cliff Stearns, Republican of Florida, would damage Komen's credibility with donors."

The Komen Foundation's "Million Dollar Council" and "Million Dollar Council Elite" donors include a Who's Who of well known American corporations, including American Airlines, Caterpillar, Ford, Walgreens, 3M, Dell, Purina Cat Chow and New Balance, among others.

Why is Stearns investigating Planned Parenthood? Supposedly to determine whether it has used federal money to fund abortions. In fact, the excuse for the whole Republican/far-right war on Planned Parenthood is that it provides abortion services.

But Planned Parenthood says its nearly 800 health centers around the U.S. focus on prevention: "76 percent of our clients receive services to prevent unintended pregnancy.
Planned Parenthood services help prevent more than 584,000 unintended pregnancies each year."

Only 3 percent of its health services are abortion services, the organization says.

So, one has to ask: is this GOP crusade against Planned Parenthood really about abortion? Is it really "pro-life"? No! It is an attack on women's health overall - and especially lower-income and young women who rely on Planned Parenthood - an attack on their right to make their own health decisions, including about bearing a child.

Therefore it's especially disturbing that the Komen Foundation has bowed to the Republican right in pulling its funding for Planned Parenthood's breast cancer prevention services.

This is not a "women's issue." Last time we checked, women were 50 percent of the population. The other 50 percent, men, have all had a mother and undoubtedly have a sister, a wife, a niece, a daughter, an aunt or other close female relative or friend. So 100 percent of Americans have a stake in women's health and equal access to health care.

And at least 99 percent of Americans have a stake in stopping the Republican/right attack on women.

Contact the Komen Foundation and tell them to reverse their misguided decision.

And remember in November.

Phoro: Planned Parenthood Facebook page.

Worker-friendly senator to unveil jobs plan

Mark Gruenberg — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:03:00 -0500

WASHINGTON (PAI) - Senate Labor Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, will roll out an extensive package of legislation within the next few weeks - everything from infrastructure improvements to parts of the Employee Free Choice Act - to try to rebuild the middle class.

Declaring, "We need a percolate-up economy, not a trickle-down economy," the veteran lawmaker outlined his Rebuild America Act to the Communications Workers' legislative-political conference on Feb. 1.

"It is the function of government to help create good jobs," Harkin emphasized.

Harkin got rousing cheers, and several standing ovations, from the hundreds of unionists who packed a large meeting room at Washington's unionized Omni Shoreham Hotel. But the reception he'll get on Capitol Hill will be much cooler.

That's because the House's ruling Republicans oppose almost anything to help workers. Harkin admitted their opposition, blaming the Tea Party's influence. And even if Harkin could get his proposals out of his committee, the Senate GOP would talk them to death via a filibuster on the floor.

Harkin recognized that obstruction, too: He praised CWA's stand to kill the filibuster, and promised to renew that fight at the start of the 113th Congress in 2013. "That's the first thing we've got to do," he vowed.

Had it not been for the Republican Scott Brown's win in a Massachusetts special Senate election, "we would have had enough votes to pass part of EFCA," by overcoming a GOP filibuster against labor's top cause, Harkin stated. Besides EFCA, to help level the playing field between workers and bosses in union organizing drives and in bargaining first contracts, his legislation includes:

• Investing in infrastructure and manufacturing. "We're driving on Eisenhower's highways," he said, referring to the Interstate Highway System. "And our kids are going to Roosevelt's schools," referring to buildings erected during the New Deal. Meanwhile competing nations - he cited China - "are investing in infrastructure while we're falling behind." Harkin did not put a dollar figure on his infrastructure and factory investments.

• Redoing job training curricula in the nation's schools, with federal prodding, to train students for jobs in expanding occupations. Harkin indicated businesses would be partners in that effort, by working with colleges, universities, and secondary schools on what jobs are open and what skills they need.

•"Empowering workers, which means raising the minimum wage," and indexing it to inflation afterwards. It also calls for "expanding access to overtime pay," reversing a Bush-era ruling defining millions of workers as professionals ineligible for overtime.

• Legislate improvements to retirement security, particularly "rebuilding the defined benefits pension system," available to less than one-fifth of the workforce. Now, he said, two-fifths of all workers have 401(k) accounts, troubled by the stock market, and with not enough to retire upon. The rest have nothing but Social Security.

"And it means ensuring that all workers have the right to organize, and that employers will face real penalties for violating the workers' rights to form unions," Harkin declared, to a big roar.

The Employee Free Choice Act, which never made it out of Harkin's committee in the Democratic-run 111th Congress, (he couldn't line up 60 votes to overcome the filibuster threat) imposed larger fines for employer labor law-breaking. It also formally legalized card check recognition of unions, cut down on time available for employers' delays and mandated binding arbitration of first contracts if the two sides could not agree to a pact after a set time (usually 120 days).

Employers must be "forced to negotiate in good faith," Harkin said, recalling - again - how young hotshot financers bought the Delavan, Iowa, engine plant where his late brother, who was disabled, worked. They broke the United Auto Workers at the plant via a lockout and "striker replacements." Harkin's brother, at age 54, had to take a job "as a janitor cleaning latrines" and "never recovered" from the shock.

Harkin was not specific on how he would rebuild the pensions. He also proposes to strengthen Social Security "so its benefits would be a greater replacement share" of a worker's pre-retirement income, but again did not say how.

Other measures:

• Enact family-friendly legislation. One measure would mandate seven days of paid sick leave for full-time workers in all but the smallest companies. The U.S. is one of the few nations worldwide without paid sick leave. Harkin and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., are the prime congressional sponsors of paid sick leave legislation.

• Pay for his legislative package by a financial transactions tax, a key cause of the National Nurses Union and - at the legislative conference - the Communications Workers. The tax, of three cents per $100 in transactions, would bring in $350 billion over a decade and force Wall Street to help pay for repairing the damage it caused through the Great Recession. "Even the chief of Vanguard Investments" favors the tax, Harkin said.

"You feed the tree at the roots," he concluded. "That's the fight to restore the middle class."

Texans will fight voter suppression

Jim Lane — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:57:00 -0500

DALLAS - The Rev. L. Charles Stovall, a highly respected local civil rights leader, hosted an action-oriented meeting here last week to prepare a fight against anti-democratic laws and political practices in Texas.

"We are in a new era, a new situation, which none of us have ever seen before," Stovall said at the Jan. 26 meeting at St. Luke's United Methodist Church. He then outlined some of the negative effects expected from the voter ID law passed in the last legislative session and signed by Gov. Rick Perry.

The law requires all Texas voters to have a state-issued photo identification card in addition to their usual proof of voter registration before they can vote. Older people, blind or disabled people, and a lot of people not proficient in the English language do not hold driver's licenses. In order to exercise their democratic rights at the polls, they will have to go through the expense and bother of getting a special identification card from the driver's license office. Texans with experience dread the long waits at those offices!

Students living away from home might also find themselves disenfranchised because they will not be allowed to use their student identification cards to establish their residency. Not many years ago, hundreds of students from Prairie View A&M University, a traditionally African American college, marched miles in the rain to protest an elections office that would not let them use their student identification. The embarrassed elections office reversed the order and let them vote! But the new Texas law would mean that the only way they could vote would be to travel home to the precinct where their driver's license was issued, no matter how far!

The excuse being given for voter ID laws is that they prevent fraudulent voting at the polls, but supporters of the bill have not been able to produce any actual cases of such fraud. Furthermore, the Texas voting laws governing absentee voting, where fraud is much more likely, have not changed. Clearly, the voter ID laws being introduced in Texas and other states should be named what Rev. Stovall calls them: voter suppression.

One of the first speakers introduced by Rev. Stovall at the Jan. 26 meeting was Peter Johnson, who was originally sent to Dallas as a Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizer by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself. Johnson said that his experience with the fight for fair voting laws began in 1957 when labor leader A. Philip Randolph called a march on Washington. Johnson cited the many martyrs of that struggle, several of whom he knew personally. "We paid for this in funerals, and blood," Johnson said.

Johnson is known around Dallas for original ideas in civil rights struggles. He pointed out that people can also use their driver's license to carry concealed firearms. Johnson speculated, "If we had 500 African American students show up at a gun show, and buy automatic weapons, I think it would cause some consideration."

Texas' voter ID law is not the only ongoing voter suppression activity in the state. The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature evaluated the 2010 Census data, which showed most of the state's population growth has been among the minorities, and managed to draw redistricting maps that actually diminished minority voting power! A federal court overturned the redistricting maps and made others, but Republicans have appealed all the way to the Supreme Court for the power to ignore the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Peter Johnson summarized what is happening with an allusion to the Ku Klux Klan: "This conspiracy today against the right to vote is being led by the same people who used to wear their bedclothes!"

Photo: Rev. L. Charles Stovall. Jim Lane/PW

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Jobless rate drops: positive trend but some cautions too

Victory for women: Komen reinstates Planned Parenthood funding

Six months after lockout, workers stage 'back to work' action at American Crystal Sugar

Chris Rock says he’s willing to pay higher taxes

Pakistan generals profit from mayhem, communists say

Communications workers endorse Obama

Iran sanctions are no solution, says solidarity organization

Biden: GOP doesn’t understand middle class

U.S. steelworkers campaign to free Colombian political prisoners

GOP forces anti-labor provisions into transport bills

Fighting for immigrant rights in Alabama: a video interview

Victory for equal marriage in the Evergreen State

Ron Paul’s neo-Nazi ties, Romney alliance exposed

Romney’s Bain behind airline plan to slash jobs and pensions

GOP forces anti-labor provisions into transport bills

﻿﻿Don Cornelius, creator of “Soul Train,” dead at 75

Arizona next battleground in workers’ rights war

Komen vs. Planned Parenthood: another attack on women

Worker-friendly senator to unveil jobs plan

Texans will fight voter suppression

Don Cornelius, creator of “Soul Train,” dead at 75