Articles » peoplesworld

There is HOPE for Memphis homeless

James Raines — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:06:00 -0400

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - On May 21, the Shelby County Commission, in a 9 to 1 vote, agreed to provide $450,000 to help fund programs and housing for people currently experiencing homelessness. This victory for the people of Memphis is due to the hard work of HOPE, Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality. Unlike other organizations that advocate for the homeless, HOPE is made up of and led by people who are experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness in the past.

On May 24, HOPE held a potluck at Manna House, a sanctuary established by Catholic Workers, to celebrate their victory.

John was at the potluck with his young son, August (Auggie) in part because no shelter in the Memphis area will take a single father with a child. John and Auggie lived in his car until it was impounded weeks ago. Since then they've been forced to live in vacant houses, where John worries about Auggie's safety. "You never know what he could step on in a place like that or who could come in," John said.

Thankfully for John and Auggie, $200,000 of the funds HOPE won this week will go to provide permanent supportive housing for families with disabilities and low-income families.

Between dances, Marian Bacon, an Independent Living Specialist at Memphis Center for Independent Living who once experienced homelessness herself, found time to talk.

"No shelter is free, which is discrimination in itself," Marian pointed out. Furthermore, there is "only one shelter for women in Memphis but four or five for men."

Marian went on to discuss how the local shelters discriminate in ways beyond demands for payment. "80 percent are faith-based and if you don't follow their rules, you're out." Equally distressing is the fact that at "Union Mission, if you have a visible physical disability they won't admit you."

If you have a cane, or a walker you are turned away, if you have a wheelchair you literally cannot even make it in the front door. Union Mission does not have a wheelchair ramp or any way for someone in a wheelchair to navigate their front steps. Sadly, many of these faith-based shelters require families to be broken up before they will offer assistance. According to Marian, "If you have a boy over 5-6 years old they'll not admit you unless you put your son in foster care."

Hopefully, some of the prejudice experienced by someone who is currently homeless and physically disabled will be alleviated by the allocation of $250,000 to provide 100 units of housing for "the most vulnerable people on the streets."

There are those who oppose these additions to the county budget. Wyatt Buckner is reported to have said, "Its not the government's job to give people a handout."

Mar'Quella Scott pointed out that he said this "to veterans, to pregnant women, to his constituents." In Mar'Quella's opinion, "the government office is the place for these people to go." As Steve Mullroy, Shelby County Commissioner, said, "It's a question of priorities, do we think it is important to help out the homeless."

Between putting out food, answering phone calls, and making sure people had places to stay, Brad Watkins, an Organizing Director at Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, spoke about HOPE's four core values: "Dignity, Mutual Emotional Support, Solidarity, and Self-Determination."

Since 2009, Brad, with the help of many other people, has been working to organize HOPE into what it is today - a highly effective advocacy and direct action organization made of and led by the community it represents.

As the evening's celebration came to a close, Terrance, a retired Marine who lost two of the fingers on his left hand due to an injury he suffered when his caravan was bombed in Iraq during his third tour, his tenth year at war, put it clearly. "We're good enough to fight for this country, but we're not good enough to get the services we need when we get home." Terrance says, "HOPE gives us hope for a better tomorrow, [it lets us] speak peace in a world of violence."

Photo: John and Auggie. James Raines/PW

Plastic bags to be banned in LA

Blake Deppe — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:40:00 -0400

In what seems to be part of a steadily increasing effort in the U.S. to find green alternatives to unhealthy materials, Los Angeles, California will, this year, become the largest city to ban plastic bags at grocery stores.

On May 23, the City Council voted 13-1 for the approval of a policy that will ban single-use plastic bags before the end of the year, after an environmental impact report is finished and an ordinance is adopted. This development follows previous plastic bag bans in 48 Californian cities that encourage customers to use reusable bags - which won't litter and clog waterways and landfills.

One of the more recent examples occurred in Solana Beach, California, in April. "We recognize the harm that plastic bags do to our environments," City Councilwoman Lesa Heebner had remarked. "It harms wildlife, and we're small enough to institute something like this and see the difference that it makes."

LA residents will soon see the difference, as well: After the ordinance is adopted there, major stores will be required to phase out plastic bags over a six-month period, during which they will be expected to provide free paper bags. Smaller retail outlets, moreover, would be given a year's time to do away with plastic. Later, retailers will be allowed to charge 10 cents per paper bag if they choose. Residents receiving government assistance would be exempt from that fee, however.

Enrique Zaldivar, director of the city's Bureau of Sanitation, saw this as a major step forward, particularly for a city - population approximately 4 million - that uses about 2.7 billion single-use bags a year. "It's important to conserve the environment," Zaldivar stressed. "The reusable bag will do that."

The decision to move forward with the ban came after previous protests against the use of plastic bags, where environmental activists presented recyclable bags that held thousands of pro-ban petition signatures.

"Today, the Los Angeles City Council took a prudent step to protect the environment and bolster our economy," said Kirsten James, with environmental group Heal the Bay. James, who is the group's director of water quality, added, "The vote further emphasizes that the days are numbered for single-use bags in California."

Actress and Seinfeld alumni Julia Louis-Dreyfus - a board member of Heal the Bay - agreed that it was important for the city to terminate plastic bag usage. "What is hideously ugly, gigantically dangerous and outrageously expensive, and yet we still use it every single day in Los Angeles?" she asked. "No, it's not the 405 [freeway]. It's plastic bags. And unlike most other ugly, dangerous, and expensive things, we can actually get rid of these things overnight."

'Overnight' may be an exaggeration - note again the six-month allowance period for large retailers - but Los Angeles will, indeed, soon say "good riddance" to plastic bags.

Though some manufacturers and union employees voice a legitimate concern that phasing out plastic bags could cost some people jobs, many activists feel it needs to be done, and that, ultimately, it is in workers' best interest.

A large portion of ocean pollution, said Dreyfus, is plastic, and the pollution damages ocean life and, in turn, the jobs that depend on it.

Many now hope that LA will follow the example of San Francisco, which successfully moved to ban plastic bags at major stores in 2007. At such stores, "the public has gotten used to bringing their own bags," said David Assmann, a manager in San Francisco's environment department. "I think it's become a part of the culture here."

Photo: Margie La Bouff of Long Beach, Calif. loads groceries in reusable bags into her vehicle. Steve McCrank/AP & The Daily Breeze

A tribute to Philip Levine, poet laureate of workers

John Case — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:01:00 -0400

Philip Levine has just completed his year-long term as the U.S. poet laureate. At 85 years old he is not the oldest poet to hold the position (That honor belongs to Stanley Kunitz).

He is not the most educated. He is certainly not rich.

Phil was Detroit-made, through and through: "a deuce and a quarter, babe, with enough chrome to reflect the moon from sea to shining sea."

John Hiatt turned his verse to roots rock.

His poems smell like gasoline, machine shops, foundries, assembly lines, and the neighborhoods take care of each other;

where it's late but everything comes next; where you take a nap after your shift even before your shower;

where rats are always hungry, and the wolverines find boundless devotion;

where the working class line forms apart from the boss class line, and there's not much else in between.

Richard Trumka threw a party for him last fall. Levine is no friend of the labor-despisers, race-baiters and war-hogs.

A poet laureate whose position, as the AFL-CIO noted, gave nationwide attention to a plain and outspoken affinity with working people ...

whose signature poetry collection is "What Work Is.

Let him tell it in his own words:

"The Simple Truth"

I bought a dollar and a half's worth of small red potatoes,
took them home, boiled them in their jackets
and ate them for dinner with a little butter and salt.
Then I walked through the dried fields
on the edge of town. In middle June the light
hung on in the dark furrows at my feet,
and in the mountain oaks overhead the birds
were gathering for the night, the jays and mockers
squawking back and forth, the finches still darting
into the dusty light. The woman who sold me
the potatoes was from Poland; she was someone
out of my childhood in a pink spangled sweater and sunglasses
praising the perfection of all her fruits and vegetables
at the road-side stand and urging me to taste
even the pale, raw sweet corn trucked all the way,
she swore, from New Jersey. "Eat, eat" she said,
"Even if you don't I'll say you did."
Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker,
the glass of water, the absence of light gathering
in the shadows of picture frames, they must be
naked and alone, they must stand for themselves.
My friend Henri and I arrived at this together in 1965
before I went away, before he began to kill himself,
and the two of us to betray our love. Can you taste
what I'm saying? It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, the metal we call salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live on it.

As with his poetry, in which the workers who fill his poems carry with them the hope and perseverance that belies their often brutal environments, there is one constant that carries him through: I do believe in people.

Poem reprinted with permission. Photo: Philip Levine reading his poems in New York City, September 2006. David Shankbone Creative Commons 2.5

Try telling John Carlos that sports and politics don’t mix

Greg Leedham — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:48:00 -0400

Interview: Forty-four years have passed since the most famous protest in sports history. But, talking to John Carlos in London this week, perhaps what is most striking is how few athletes have followed the example of the 1968 Olympian and used the five-ringed circus and the unrivalled platform it provides to make a stand on a political or social issue.

The forthcoming London Games promise to be more sanitized, more awash with corporate sponsors than ever before, but the likelihood of an athlete using their fame to make a political statement is slim.

Back in '68, Carlos and his US team-mate Tommie Smith won bronze and gold respectively in the 200 metres but shocked the world and especially the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by using the medal podium to unleash a multifaceted protest against a range of issues.

These included the treatment of black people in the US and racial segregation in South Africa and Rhodesia, as well as paying tribute to hundreds of Mexican students who had been massacred shortly before the Games that were held in their capital.

Smith and Carlos each raised a black-gloved fist to represent strength and unity. They wore beads around the necks to highlight the history of lynching in the US and they took off their shoes to symbolize the poverty that still plagued much of the US, both black and white.

Smith, Carlos and Australian silver medalist Peter Norman also wore badges bearing the emblem of the Olympic Project for Human Rights, an organization of which Smith and Carlos were members and which had advocated a boycott of the Mexico City Olympics in which they were now present.

From the stands there was a deathly silence. "You could have heard a frog piss on cotton," Carlos recalls in his new book. However boos and abuse soon rained down on the trio, but far worse persecution would follow in the years to come.

Carlos is 67 now, but when I meet him he appears to have lost none of the passion which drove him all those years ago. He carries the scars too, one of them a visible limp from an injury he suffered while trying to forge an ill-fated career as a gridiron player after he was ostracized from the U.S. athletics team.

Indeed, he is well aware that his experiences post-1968 make him as much an example to be feared as followed. He struggled to find work in the 1970s, had to steal or gamble on more than one occasion to provide for his family, suffered torment at the hands of the FBI and saw his marriage to his beloved wife Kim disintegrate. Tragically Kim would take her life in 1977 after years of battling depression.

"There's a lot of young sports people out there today," says Carlos, who is on a tour of Britain to publicize his autobiography, which was co-written by Dave Zirin. "They get told you can't do this or say that or you'll lose contracts. You'll be scorned for stepping out or even run out of professional sports altogether. There are many examples of this."

Still, he is buoyed by a number of recent examples of sports persons and sports teams in his native US, who have made a variety of stands on political issues.

He also believes that the rise of the Internet and the diversity of the media means that the vilification he, Smith and the likes of Muhammad Ali suffered is unlikely to be repeated today. Gone are the days when a handful of columnists could shape national opinion.

"I think America has grown in the sense that it doesn't try to ridicule those individuals," Carlos says. "I think they (critics) have realized that they only put more coal on the fire by trying to denounce or publicly suppress those individuals who choose to speak out."

Yet even today there still exists the view that sport and politics don't mix - an argument Carlos believes is "ridiculous."

That was the line of Avery Brundage, the IOC president between 1952 and 1972 and an infamous anti-semite, who dubbed Smith and Carlos's 1968 protest as a "nasty demonstration against the American flag by negroes."

But as Carlos points out, one person's politics is another person's non-politics.

Brundage long campaigned for South Africa's inclusion in the Olympics, arguing that a country's internal politics should be ignored while conveniently overlooking the fact that allowing the apartheid state's inclusion would also be a political move and one which would give them legitimacy.

"The Olympic Games and politics are like a marriage," Carlos argues. "You can't say: 'Oh, I'll put my head in the glass box and won't pull it out.' People need to open their eyes. Political is correct when the powers that be want it to be, but if anyone else goes down that line and in a way they don't like they kick up a big stink."

I wonder what issues Carlos would be campaigning for if he were 40 years younger and competing at July's Games.

"That's a hard question," says Carlos, leaning back in his chair. "There's obviously the issue of sexual preference. There's the economic growth of the Olympic Committee - corporate entities have come in with a lot of money and taken over the sport."

I suggest that perhaps Saudi Arabia's refusal to send a women's team to the London Games might be an issue that a young John Carlos would have targeted.

"That's been in their culture for aeons," he says after much thought. "But certainly the IOC wouldn't get involved in that. I think they would just sidestep the issue and keep moving."

Carlos seems reluctant to delve to deeply into the issue. He is clearly of the view that the US has historically not always been in the best position to preach to others. "We can't act like we're this clean, purified people, saviors to society who do everything right, because we've been just as guilty as (apartheid) South Africa and many other countries," he says.

That Carlos has felt ashamed of his country comes across loudly in his book. He still has good reason to feel resentful of a homeland, which robbed him of his livelihood, brutalized his family and ultimately left him penniless.

Yet he has been proved to be on the right side of history. His legacy has endured and flourished, while the stock of those who opposed him, most notably Brundage, has fallen spectacularly.

Later that day, Carlos addresses a 1,000-strong audience in London, where he receives a standing ovation. It is a recognition that is long overdue.

This story originally appeared in Britain's Morning Star newspaper. Photo: The salute was a noted human rights protest and one of the most overtly political statements in the 110 year history of the modern Olympic Games. African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed their Black Power salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. Via Wikipedia.

Ten dead, a hundred injured in bloodstained Chicago field

John Wojcik — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:30:00 -0400

CHICAGO - Memorial Day in Chicago in 1937 was a hot, sunny day, perfect for picnics, the beach or a trip out to the park or the woods. Workers gathered in the field outside Republic Steel's Chicago plant were, in fact, picnicking. They arrived with their entire families in tow.

They were on strike but the strike was just a week old so people were not yet in the direst of straights. Kids rode on their fathers' shoulders, everybody was having a good time and the holiday atmosphere almost made people forget that bosses and police don't like big gatherings of workers, regardless of the reason for the gathering.

They gathered around Sam's Place, where they had set up a soup kitchen to hear some speeches. It was at Sam's place that food for the strikers was collected. The hot weather was relentless so everyone was glad when the vendors arrived with their ice cream and soft drinks. From time to time people broke out into song with "Solidarity Forever!" being the one heard most often.

And then they began their peaceful march to the plant, a third of the mile away from Sam's Place. Fathers carried their kids and women dressed in their Sunday best walked arm-in-arm with them.

Five hundred Chicago policemen stopped them with the captain shouting through a bullhorn: "You dirty sons of bitches, this is as far as you go!"

Two hundred and fifty yards from the plant the assault began. Cops armed with extra long clubs smashed them down onto the people's heads, into the groins of the men and onto the breasts of the women. Then the cops began pulling their guns out of their holsters.

"We have the right to picket peacefully," the women protested.

"You have no rights, you red bastards, you got no rights," the cops shouted back.

Children were screaming. Then came the tear gas, then grenades and then the awful gunfire. Bullets shot from the guns, bored through human flesh into the legs and the backs of fleeing men, women and children until 100 were injured and ten were dead.

Cops shrieked in excitement, running after fleeing workers, shooting them in their backs. When a woman tripped and fell, four cops surrounded her and smashed her face with their boots until the flesh was gone and only her facial bones were visible.

The police lifted dead bodies off the ground and threw them into vans already loaded with the injured and dying.

The horrific details are with us still today because a few brave souls caught snippets of the action on their cameras. The picnic ground was left a bloodstained field.

Today, 75 years later, the fight for workers' rights is still front and center. After occupying the state capital in Madison, Wisconsin last year workers may be on the verge next week of recalling a right-wing Republican Governor who pushed through a law to destroy the collective bargaining rights the families were demanding back then in 1937. There is no question on whose side Wisconsin's Gov. Scott Walker would have been had he been alive in 1937.

While Memorial Day is traditionally thought of as a day to remember our fallen soldiers, many in the labor movement would like to include fallen workers on that list. American history, they say, has also involved warfare between those who want to expand wealth and democracy and those who want to restrict both to a privileged few.

This incredible day in American history will be remembered on May 26^th, 2012 at Chicago's George Washington High School, 3535 E. 114^TH St., right where the massacre occurred, with a panel discussion at 10 a.m. and a "still fighting back rally" at 1:30 p.m., featuring Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America.

The event, sponsored by the Steelworker's Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR), will also feature other labor leaders, elected officials, artists and academicians. And, of course, just like the event in 1937, there will be music, entertainment and food.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons: This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the National Archives and Records Administration as part of a cooperation project.

Labor history: "Bonus Army" starts national movement

PW Editorial Board — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:48:00 -0400

Eighty years ago today, the first "Bonus Marchers" arrived in Washington, D.C.

Millions of American veterans had returned home from the war in 1918, only to find out that the benefits the U.S. government had promised them would not kick in until 1945. As the Great Depression sunk in, many became desperate and embittered. A group of veterans in Portland, Oregon, decided to do something. Carrying a bugle and a flag and calling themselves the Bonus Army, they crossed the country, picking up other veterans as they went along.

The idea caught on, and veterans from across the country descended on Washington, the first arriving 80 years ago today, their numbers reaching 20,000 after just a week. There, foreshadowing the Occupy Wall Street movement, they set up camp, the largest shantytown in the country. The people of Washington supported the camp, bringing them food and other supplies, as well as joining in demonstrations. The Hoover administration panicked and sent the active military to break up the camp; a battle ensued.

Photos were seen across the country, and the public, outraged, pressed for action. Instead of waiting until the 1940s, the vets received their bonuses four years after their encampment was dismantled. The memories of the protests helped the next way of soldiers: In 1944, Congress drafted the GI bill.

Photo via Wikipedia.

Mariela Castro in San Francisco: Cuba moving toward LGBT equality

Marilyn Bechtel — Fri, 25 May 2012 12:09:00 -0400

SAN FRANCISCO - In remarks greeted with vigorous, repeated applause, Mariela Castro Espin, director of the Cuban National Center for Sex Education, told a standing-room-only crowd here of the progress Cuba has made toward equal rights for its LGBT community, and the great amount of work that lies ahead to win full equality.

Her May 23 presentation at the S.F. Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center was among several Bay Area appearances this week. On May 24 Castro, who is among dozens of Cuban scholars participating in the Latin American Studies Association's annual meeting, chaired a panel there on sexual politics. Earlier in the week she met with medical professionals and transgender advocates at S.F. General Hospital.

Speaking in Spanish, Castro told the audience that a resolution the Cuban Communist Party passed at its conference in January, to fight against all forms of discrimination including that based on sexual orientation and sexual identity, "opens the door to begin to create public policy."

She called the resolution "a beginning, but an important beginning."

Castro has also reintroduced a bill for civil unions in the National Assembly.

She said the Federation of Cuban Women and the Federation of Cuban Jurists are calling for giving same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples. Married and unmarried opposite-sex couples already have the same rights.

"We first proposed marriage," she said, "but legal scholars, and some Communist Party members, were up in arms. So as not to lose the fight, we proposed equal recognition of same-sex couples."

A proposal on adoption was also postponed. "So we have to go step by step," she said, "but the important thing is to win rights."

Mariela Castro, the daughter of Cuban President Raul Castro and the late Vilma Espin, and niece of former President Fidel Castro, is married, with three children. She said her longstanding concern for lesbian and gay rights grew both from "the sense of social justice that we grow up with in Cuba," and from her mother's work for gay and transgender rights.

Castro also said her mother, as president of the Federation of Cuban Women, had long ago proposed that marriage be defined "as the union between two people"- a concept that has yet to catch on.

Asked her reaction to President Obama's recent statement supporting same-sex marriage, Castro said she is "heartened" by the president's decision. Marriage equality can be a political issue in elections, she said, "I think he speaks from his heart, it is something he really believes in."

She said Cubans "celebrate" Obama's loosening of some restrictions including travel, but observed that the president hasn't been able to return U.S.-Cuba relations to the level during the Carter administration.

To great applause, Castro urged Americans to fight for normalization because the current situation violates not only international law but also the rights of the U.S. people.

"All over the world, people have to continue to fight for different expressions of democracy. This is one of them," she said.

If she had the chance to meet with Obama, Castro said, she would say, "Give me Five! And that's the five political prisoners who infiltrated groups in the U.S. planning terrorist attacks against Cuba."

Anti-Cuba activists have protested the State Department's issuance of a visa to Mariela Castro, in view of restrictions barring visitor visas to Cuban government or Communist Party officials. One such protest, by U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee, came despite Ros-Lehtinen's strong support for gay and transgender rights.

Photo: Castro with program MC Liam Mayclem. Marilyn Bechtel/PW

Wrong turn could kill economic recovery

Mark Gruenberg — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:37:00 -0400

WASHINGTON - A top international economic group, representing the world's leading industrial nations, calls the world economic recovery "fragile." And it says the recovery - which other analysts say millions of workers worldwide have yet to see - could reverse into a new recession due to misguided, wrong economic policies.

The May 22 report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development adds the U.S. is at risk of that U-turn, in so many words.

Five years after the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market "sparked off the most dramatic financial and economic crisis in several decades...we cannot yet say the crisis is behind us. More than once, signs of recovery have disappointed," said Pier Carlo Padoan, OECD's chief economist.

"Policy mistakes have been made, sometimes reflecting inaccurate reading of events, at other times reflecting policy and political failures. Is it different this time? As long as confidence is not rebuilt on a solid basis with the right policy choices, downside risks will prevail."

OECD forecasts the U.S. jobless rate will keep slowly declining, to 7.9 percent by the fourth quarter of this year. It says Europe is in a tailspin, with joblessness above 10 percent there, and that its problems could drag the rest of the world down. But the U.S. also could hit the skids, OECD says, if its pro-growth measures suddenly get shut off.

"In the United States, growth should continue to strengthen as confidence is picking up in both businesses and households," the report says. "More generally, growth seems to be increasingly driven by private-sector demand rather than by policy. Fiscal consolidation is dragging growth, but only at a moderate pace.

"However, the risk of excessive fiscal tightening in 2013 remains to be addressed. Long-term fiscal sustainability remains to be achieved, and a credible fiscal plan is needed to ensure it. Given the still-weak recovery and sluggish job creation," the Federal Reserve should keep interest rates low to make money available, "conditional upon developments."

The report's reference to "excessive fiscal tightening" is financial language for what may well be a "train wreck" during the lame-duck session of Congress later this year: Payroll tax cuts expire, mandatory budget cuts - half from domestic programs and half from defense - start in January, and Congress will again have to vote on raising the debt ceiling. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has threatened to use that vote to demand more budget cuts, but no tax cuts for the rich.

The combo could kill U.S. demand and throw the U.S. back into an official recession, OECD warns.

Pay your share! Community members crash Chicago Mercantile Exchange

John Bachtell — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:24:00 -0400

CHICAGO - The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is Chicago's most profitable corporation and the world's largest futures trading company. Last year it raked in $1.9 billion in profits.

Who would have guessed the Mercantile Exchange needed help from Illinois taxpayers? But when the state legislature passed a corporate tax increase last year CME balked and threatened to leave the state.

So the legislature carved out an $85 million yearly tax break for the Exchange that will total nearly $1 billion over 10 years.

Meanwhile the state has a $5 billion budget deficit and owes another $9 billion in unpaid bills. Gov. Pat Quinn is proposing a budget that will gut health care, education and other vital services.

While the Mercantile Exchange celebrated its gains at its annual shareholders meeting May 23, thousands protested all day demanding that CME pay its taxes and prevent the cuts and massive layoffs.

Before the meeting started, 15 protesters were arrested blocking the Board of Trade.

"CME needs to pay their taxes," said Annette Jones, a home health worker whose job is threatened by state spending cuts. "If CME paid its 'fair share' those cuts might not be necessary."

Then 60 shareholders representing Chicago's neighborhoods, clergy, child care and home care workers, teachers, seniors and the unemployed crashed the CME party.

Janet Edberg, who has been unemployed for two years, bought shares with other community activists so they could attend the meeting and speak out.

"CME made $1.9 billion in profit last year while benefiting from millions of public dollars. That makes every taxpayer a shareholder in CME," said Edberg. "As an official shareholder in CME, I went to the meeting to say enough is enough. Give back our tax dollars to the people and communities that desperately need help."

The proposed budget cuts will devastate home child care programs. Katrina Jefferson runs her own in-home pre-school and afterschool program in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. She is like thousands of other providers across the state.

In addition to providing care for nine children she is their teacher. "I'm also the driver, psychologist, cook, dietician, and potty trainer. I do it all," said Jefferson.

"I'm here for the parents, because if they don't receive these child care benefits they won't be able to work or go to school. 99% are single mothers."

Jefferson says if the program is slashed or parents are forced to pay higher co-pays, it will make it impossible for her to do her job.

"I don't want to shut down. What are the parents going to do?"

The cuts will have a devastating impact on senior citizens too. "My wife is 88 years old and is afraid of being shipped to a nursing home if we lose our home care if they make these cuts," said Abraham Bassford with the Jane Adams Senior Caucus. "She has no Medicaid."

Another CME shareholder was Alejandro Villatoro, a two-time Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran with 12 years of service. On May 20, Villatoro was one of nearly 50 veterans who returned their service medals during the NATO Summit to protest the wars and military spending.

"In the midst of war, everyone pays a price for our men and women in the armed forces," he said. "We pay 30% in taxes to keep the country safe. Is CME paying its fair share?"

Villatoro said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The local Veterans Administration hospital is so overwhelmed and understaffed that each caseworker is seeing 20-30 veterans per shift and there is no separate facility for women vets.

"Why would CME require a tax break during a time of war? Shouldn't they be making a sacrifice like I did?" he asked.

"How do you fix the budget deficit?" the crowd yelled. "Tax, tax, tax the rich!"

Thousands protest Philly school closings, layoffs

John Vago — Fri, 25 May 2012 11:16:00 -0400

PHILADELPHIA - Responding to a call by the Service Employees' International Union, more than a thousand people marched through downtown here and rallied in front of the School Reform Commission offices May 23, protesting the commission's latest consultant-supplied plan for mass closings of public schools, layoffs of staff in all categories, union-busting, and privatization of schools.

The latest scheme comes after a decade of mismanagement by the commission, which was imposed on Philadelphia by the state government in place of the previous Board of Education. This decade has included the conversion of numerous public schools to charter (semi-private) schools, with no overall improvement in results. It has also included a revolving door of superintendents, reliance on the recommendations of private consultants, layoffs, and increased workloads for school workers, among other problems.

Most recently, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's latest budget starves Philadelphia's public schools, but includes three new prisons.

The May 23 action was seen by its organizers and participants as a response to a national attack on public education and on unions, with Philadelphia as the present prime target.

While most who participated were from SEIU (school bus drivers, maintenance workers, etc.), other unions and of community and school groups were also present. At least one busload of supporters came from New York City, and support rallies occurred in several other cities in Pennsylvania.

The Philadelphia action had a strong spirit of unity and determination in support of public schools, shown by T-shirts, signs, and chants. Speakers included Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, who indicated the PFT's support for the SEIU school workers.

Repeated calls were made for a big turnout at another rally in front of the SRC offices at 440 North Broad Street on Thursday May 31 starting at 4:30 p.m. That is when the SRC is to vote on its current plan. The rally is to demand a vote of "No."

Photo: May 23 Philadelphia march slams plan for school closings, layoffs, privatization, via SEIU 32BJ

NATO protest reflections: Winning tactics vs. dead ends

John Bachtell — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:00:00 -0400

CHICAGO - One by one, they threw their medals toward the generals and statesmen behind the high barricades surrounding the NATO Summit in Chicago last week. Nearly 50 veterans made history, rejecting the lies of the 1% that justified shipping them to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was one of the most profoundly moving events I have ever witnessed.

Unfortunately, their story of courage and heroism, and the largely peaceful nature of the May 20 protest and week of protests leading up to it, was buried behind headlines of violent clashes between some protesters and police.

There were in fact two protests that day: the organized mass peaceful expression - which ended with the veterans asking people to disperse peacefully - and then the confrontation with police afterward.

No one, certainly not the coalition that organized the main ceremony and march, sanctioned the confrontation and the desire by some to march through police barricades to the site of the NATO Summit.

Police violence at the demonstration and during the week, the 45 arrests and ongoing detentions, the holding at gunpoint of independent journalists who were "live streaming" the events, the alleged entrapment of several young activists on terrorism charges - all these must and are being widely condemned.

However, neither can they excuse or justify in any way the provocations that emanated from some protesters.

These incidents overshadowed the largely nonviolent nature of the protests and drowned out the main message: End the wars and militarization and reallocate desperately needed funds to create jobs and fund education, health care and affordable housing.

They especially overshadowed the veterans' message, which has wide and deep resonance among the American people.

They also overshadowed the struggle waged for the right to protest, for free speech and assembly, and the fight against Mayor Rahm Emanuel's "Sit Down and Shut Up" ordinances.

These experiences provide important tactical lessons for the peace and justice and Occupy movements to reflect on, especially for the many young, deeply committed activists who possess a fervent hatred of capitalism, gross inequality and injustice, and who are gaining valuable experiences in this upsurge.

Among the Occupy (and earlier anti-globalization) movements, a problematic trend has developed. That trend has a political expression, which sees confrontation with police, vandalism and hyper-aggressive tactics as its central tenets.

This trend usually manifests itself in the self-proclaimed "Black Bloc." Its tactics here at the NATO protests, which included bullying peaceful protesters, alienated the overwhelming majority of us who marched.

Why can a small yet disruptive grouping wreak so much havoc on a majority peaceful movement? Because there is a trend among the left that also sees confrontation with the police as a viable revolutionary and anti-capitalist tactic, and therefore accommodates groups like the Black Bloc in the name of "diversity of tactics."

It is said in the name of "inclusiveness" that those who profess confrontational tactics have a right to do so, that tactics of nonviolence and confrontation can co-exist in one movement.

Unfortunately, march organizers decided not to publicly renounce violence on the grounds of preserving unity. Instead they only spoke out against the violence the emanates from NATO and police.

Such tactics and talk may sound militant and even appear to be delivering a blow against capitalism. But, on the contrary, they play into the hands of the 1%.

Let's be real. In order to confront ruling class power, a broad-based unified, diverse and mobilized movement among wide sections of the American people is necessary. Tactics - from the forms of protest to the kinds of demands and slogans - play a major part in mobilizing, unifying and winning over broad sections of the public.

The American people understand the use of nonviolent civil disobedience in pursuit of a great cause and high moral purpose. It is an indelible part of our multi-racial, working-class history of struggle.

But they are equally turned off when violence is perpetrated or advocated by those who profess change.

Such tactics do nothing to expand the coalition or build the movement for immediate or long-term change.

They do damage by feeding into ruling class crackdowns, including anti-democratic laws and statutes.

It was the specter of violence that Chicago Mayor Emanuel used effectively to gain passage of restrictions on First Amendment rights.

Certainly, there should be no illusions about the role of the police as an institution, let alone the history of brutality of the Chicago Police Department.

But neither should one ignore how ruling circles and authorities have exploited a permissive attitude toward violence to infiltrate and entrap, to provoke violent acts that split groups or narrow movements, driving away the broader political allies needed for victory.

Such tactics ultimately spell doom for any movement. The upsurge of the 1960s is replete with examples including the destruction of groups and tragic death of many young activists like Black Panther Fred Hampton.

The most powerful mass movements effecting historic change have been based on nonviolent civil disobedience: the civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King; the anti-Vietnam War movement; the U.S. anti-apartheid struggle and the organization of industrial unions, to name a few.

More recently, nonviolent civil disobedience has effectively won public support for workers and immigrant rights and saving the environment. It forced the racist murder of Trayvon Martin into the national spotlight.

The aim of any tactic must be to build a majority movement of the most powerful class and social forces capable of winning. The value of a tactic can be determined in how well it achieves this.

Any tolerance for violence, provocation or confrontation is a political dead end.

X-Men presents comics’ first interracial gay wedding

Blake Deppe — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:45:00 -0400

The pages of Marvel Comics' Astonishing X-Men will feature the first interracial gay superhero wedding, when issue #51 of the beloved comic series hits stores June 20. It will feature the comics' first openly gay hero, Northstar, marrying his longtime boyfriend.

The Canadian mutant hero (a.k.a. Jean-Paul Beaubier) has recently acquired a small fanbase within the LGBT community. He will marry African-American Kyle Jinadu. Northstar was revealed to be a gay character way back in 1992, becoming the first Marvel hero to be recognized as such. That was a big deal for comics everywhere at that time. This new development seems to be the next logical step forward in Marvel's increasingly diverse, pro-equality lineup of stories and characters.

Astonishing X-Men #50, which hit shelves May 23, was the issue in which Northstar proposed to his boyfriend.

Thor Parker, a worker at Midtown Comics in New York's Times Square, said that the issue and the one to come are sure to be hits. "You're seeing people come in and ask for a comic by name and number, which usually only happens when something big is going on." Parker, who is the store's events director and social marketer, added that, in celebration, their store is actively seeking out same-sex couples who want to have an in-store wedding on the day of the upcoming comic's release.

In recent years, comics have taken an immense step forward in terms of promoting racial and gender equality. In 2010, the classic Archie comics added a gay character to its roster. And DC Comics has, for a while, had a lesbian superhero - Batwoman. DC also recently announced that one of its iconic characters would soon come out of the closet as part of a series reboot and a representation of the new direction the comic company is headed with some of its characters.

Meanwhile, the new alter ego of Spider-Man in Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man comics is half-Hispanic, half-African American. And DC's new Batwing series features an African Batman fighting police corruption in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Clearly, comics are moving in a progressive direction, and at a rate which readers have never before seen.

Herndon Graddick, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, commented, "When a major comic publisher like Marvel not only includes, but publicly celebrates the legal wedding of two of its gay characters, it reflects how supporting same-sex couples has become the new normal. Readers expect to see their realities portrayed in these fictional worlds, and today that includes married gay and lesbian couples."

Cartoonist Tom Batiuk, who is introducing a gay couple who attend their high school prom in a comic strip he writes, commented on how comics' acceptance of LGBT characters coincides with today's youth embracing equality in the real world. "As I sit in on the classes in my old high school," he said, "I see how the younger generation's attitude toward gays is more open and accepting than that of their predecessors."

X-Men titles in particular have always been known for being incredibly bold in depicting racial/gender equality. All races have been heavily represented amongst the main X-Men team (take African female superhero, Storm, or Asian-American member Jubilee, for instance). There have also been Jewish X-Men, bisexual X-Men (like character Mystique), and even communist X-Men.

What is especially fitting and poetic about that is that the "anti-mutant propaganda" that occurs in the world of the X-Men (in which some normal humans fear mutants, and conservative politicians try and introduce anti-mutant legislation) has always served as a metaphor for real world prejudice. Thus, there are few better vehicles to express the need for equality than X-Men.

"The Marvel Universe has always reflected the world outside your window," said Marvel editor in-chief Axel Alonso. "We strive to make sure that our characters, relationships, and stories are grounded in reality."

In a continuing effort to create well-crafted, realistic stories, the upcoming issue will reportedly not turn a blind eye to the controversy surrounding gay marriage, and will examine homophobia by including some characters who do not approve of Northstar's orientation or his choice to get married.

"At least one of Northstar's team members is going to turn down the invitation," said Alonso, "and that's going to make for an interesting dynamic."

Marjorie Liu, the current writer for Astonishing X-Men, commented, "Here are two people trying to live their lives - one mutant and gay, one Black and gay - empowered in their own ways, but also fringe-dwellers. And they're making it happen. They're living life on their own terms. It doesn't matter that it's a superhero comic, the message is: You can do the same thing."

Liu said the wedding would take place in New York's Central Park, where gay marriage is legal. However, she teased, this is still a superhero wedding, and the appearance of some kind of world-threatening trouble is always possible.

"As for the ceremony," she said, "Well, what wedding ever goes off without a hitch?"

Photo: Marvel Official Site

Did Dharun Ravi verdict bring justice for Tyler Clementi?

Norman Markowitz — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:22:00 -0400

In September 2010, Tyler Clementi, a freshman at Rutgers University, where I have taught for 41 years, committed suicide. Soon it was discovered that Clementi, who was gay, had been harassed by his roommate, Dharun Ravi, who used a computer web camera to both film and send to other students Clementi's sexual liaison with an older man.

As a member of the Rutgers Faculty Senate I called for a policy of expelling students who commit such acts against fellow students, faculty, or staff members. The response of the administration was to do nothing and wait for the incident to blow over. Quietly, the administration did enact a few mild dormitory reforms, permitting LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) students to opt out of difficult room situations, but it did little to address either the issue of homophobia or the most elemental right to privacy. The New Jersey state legislature responded with strong anti-bullying legislation.

Ravi refused to admit that his actions were motivated by anti-gay bigotry, claiming they were merely a prank. There was much disbelief of that claim in the Rutgers community.

At the same time, Ravi apparently feared taking the plea bargain offered him (a guilty plea and no jail time) because he would be subject to deportation, which some people felt was unfair. Ravi, who is from India, is a member of a U.S. minority group which has faced hate crimes and violence in New Jersey.
Ravi was subsequently tried and convicted. Potentially, he faced up to 10 years in prison. Most observers believed that a prison sentence was necessary under New Jersey law, but some felt that sending him to prison would only enhance the tragedy.

This week the sentence was handed down: 30 days in jail, plus community service and an $11,000 fine. Gay activists and others across the political spectrum expressed anger because of the perceived trivial nature of the sentence.

Rutgers students were not on campus when the sentence was announced. However, the outgoing university administration, busy with its refusal to sign a collective bargaining agreement with part-time lecturers (the most vulnerable group of faculty members), said nothing.

How can we make sense of this tragic and complicated case? Conservatives, broadly defined, usually believe in punishment as the solution to bad actions, although they are selective about who is to be punished. Progressives, broadly defined, usually believe that punishment in itself without rehabilitation leads to further bad acts.

In this case, punishment, given the New Jersey hate crime law, was clearly merited. One can say that the mild sentence in itself undermines the purpose and effectiveness of the statute. But treatment and rehabilitation for Ravi, as an individual, and prevention of such acts should be the primary responsibility of government.

His actions led directly to the death of Clementi and he needed to atone for his crime. Ravi should not have had to fear deportation for his plea bargain. But he should, as part of any plea bargain or trial sentencing, have been made to admit and understand why he did what he did.

For example, he could have been ordered to work with both gay rights activists and public officials to help high school and college students understand why the targeting of gay men and lesbians for intimidation and humiliation violates elemental human rights. In effect, he should have been given the choice of becoming a spokesman against homophobia.

If he refused to engage in that course of conduct, then he should have been given a major prison sentence under the law. That would have constituted justice for Tyler Clementi.

As for the outgoing Rutgers University administration, which for years has engaged in self-congratulations about the diversity of its student body, it is too late now to use this tragedy to develop a required course of anti-discrimination education for all incoming students, and too late for it to confront the consequences of its policies.

High tuition costs, threats from financial loan services, poor conditions in dormitories and classrooms - these are the subtext for undergraduate students' lives at Rutgers today.

These policies, which are the national trend in public universities, follow the example of private corporations and contribute to the anti-social acts that a small number commit.

I will recommend such a required course next year in the Rutgers University Faculty Senate. Hopefully, the incoming administration will be open to such ideas and listen seriously to the undergraduate students whose education, both professional and citizenship, is the foundation and future of Rutgers University and all U.S. public universities.

Photo: Dharun Ravi arrives at court for his sentencing hearing in New Brunswick, N.J., May 21. (AP/Mel Evans)

Florida’s Orange County OKs domestic partnerships

Ben Markeson — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:11:00 -0400

ORLANDO, Fla. - Orange County, Fla., home of Walt Disney World, became the second county in Central Florida to pass a domestic partnership ordinance May 22. That day would have been the 82nd birthday of LGBTQ rights pioneer Harvey Milk.

The county commission passed the Health, Education, and Life Protections and Domestic Partnership Registry ordinance by a 6-1 vote. The measure, which goes into effect July 6, will allow unmarried individuals to gain legal recognition and some legal rights for their relationships.

"I'm really excited that two years of work came to fruition today," said Joe Saunders, state field director of Equality Florida, which along with the Orlando Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Committee (OADO) spearheaded the campaign for passage.

Provisions that allowed punitive damages and attorney's fees to be awarded to those who won lawsuits brought for ordinance violations came under fire from commissioners. They voted to strike the punitive damages, citing the potential expense to county government if its agencies were sued, and the fact that only plaintiffs' attorneys would have been awarded fees if they prevailed.

"Removing the punitive damages makes it a little bit weaker than it could have been, but it's still a powerful law that's going to help a lot of people," said Saunders.

Commissioners, in response to activists' concerns, also added "Domestic Partnership Registry" to the ordinance title in order to clarify that it, in effect, creates domestic partnerships although it uses the terms "designating person" and "support person" in place of "domestic partner."

Orlando and Orange County will now give those who are registered identical rights: health-care facility and jail visitations, and the ability to make emergency medical, funeral and burial decisions for each other and to designate each other as a pre-need guardian, and to participate in making decisions about the education of minor children in the household. Notification of partners is also required in emergencies.

Around 20 people spoke in favor of the measure with only three speakers expressing opposition. Many audience members wore red to signify their support.

Orlando civil rights attorney Mary Meeks, of OADO, said the measure would benefit more than 100,000 Orange County residents in unmarried partnerships.

Meeks told commissioners about two friends who "literally went through living hell" when one of them became seriously ill and then died.

"Although they had the recommended legal documents [to try to establish their rights as partners], they did not have the rights you are granting here today," said Meeks.

"It was heartbreaking to witness what they went through, and this ordinance will prevent future tragedies," she said.

Vicki Nantz made a documentary about Ryan Skipper, a 25-year-old Florida man who died in 2007 after being stabbed 19 times. His murderers, two unemployed methamphetamine addicts with criminal pasts, targeted him simply because he was gay.

"Our culture was complicit in Ryan's murder because it taught his killers that Ryan's life was less valuable than theirs. That he was less deserving of respect, dignity, equality and life itself," said Nantz.

She said passage of the ordinance would tell the world that the county doesn't condone discrimination or exclusion. (Article continues below video)

The Rev. Brad Rice, a minister at Orlando's Joy Metropolitan Community Church, said his faith tradition calls for compassion and fairness for all families.

Rice, who wore a red T-shirt emblazoned with "Would Jesus Discriminate?," spoke about a man from a neighboring county who was counseled by the church after the death of his longtime partner. The lack of legal rights for unmarried partners allowed the dead man's biological family to bar the surviving partner from assisting with or attending his memorial service.

"To add insult to injury, the volunteer chaplain sent by rescue personnel told this hurting and grieving widow that his partner was already in hell, and that he would be going there, too," said Rice.

"We need for all families, no matter how they're configured, to be recognized legally, so that in times of crisis pain is not added to pain," he said.

Orlando's registry has become a model for other local governments around the state, according to Equality Florida. Tampa, Gulfport, Volusia County, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota, Pinellas County and Belle Isle now have or may adopt similar measures. Volusia became the first Central Florida county to do so on May 17.

Photo via Equality Florida.

Asia’s mad arms race

Conn Hallinan — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:49:00 -0400

Asia is currently in the middle of an unprecedented arms race that is not only sharpening tensions in the region, but competing with efforts by Asian countries to address poverty and growing economic disparity. The gap between rich and poor-calculated by the Gini coefficient that measures inequality-has increased from 39 percent to 46 percent in China, India, and Indonesia. While affluent households continue to garner larger and larger portions of the economic pie, "Children born to poor families can be 10 times more likely to die in infancy" than those from wealthy families, according to Changyong Rhee, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank.

This inequality trend is particularly acute in India, where life expectancy is low, infant mortality high, education spotty, and illiteracy widespread, in spite of that country's status as the third largest economy in Asia, behind China and Japan. According to an independent charity, the Naandi Foundation, some 42 percent of India's children are malnourished. Bangladesh, a far poorer country, does considerably better in all these areas.

And yet last year India was the world's leading arms purchaser, including a deal that will spend $20 billion dollars on high performance French fighter planes. India is also developing a long-range ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, and buying submarines and surface craft. Its military budget is set to rise 17 percent this year to $42 billion.

"It is ridiculous. We are getting into a useless arms race at the expense of fulfilling the needs of poor people," Praful Bidwai of the Coalition of Nuclear Disarmament and Peace told the New York Times.

China, too, is in the middle of an arms boom that includes beefing up its navy, constructing a new generation of stealth aircraft, and developing a ballistic missile that is potentially capable of neutralizing U.S. carriers near its coast. Beijing's arms budget has grown at a rate of some 12 percent a year and, at $106.41 billion, is now the second largest on the planet. The U.S. budget-not counting the various wars Washington is embroiled in-runs a little over $800 billion, although some have estimated that it is over $1 trillion.

While China has made enormous strides in overcoming poverty, there are some 250 million Chinese officially still considered poor, and the country's formerly red-hot economy is cooling. "Data on April spending and output put another nail into hopes that China's economy is bottoming out," Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics told the Financial Times.

The same is true for most of Asia. For instance, India's annual economic growth rate has fallen from 9 percent to 6.1 percent over the past two and a half years.

Tensions between China and other nations in the region have set off a local arms race. Taiwan is buying four U.S.-made Perry-class guided missile frigates, and Japan has shifted much of its military from its northern islands to face southward toward China.

The Philippines are spending almost $1 billion on new aircraft and radar, and recently held joint war games with the U.S. South Korea has just successfully tested a long-range cruise missile. Washington is reviving ties with Indonesia's brutal military because the island nation controls the strategic seaways through which pass most of the region's trade and energy supplies.

Australia is also re-orientating its defense to face China, and Australian Defense Minister Stephen Smith has urged "that India play the role it could and should as an emerging great power in the security and stability of the region."

But that "role" is by no means clear, and some have read Smith's statement as an attempt to rope New Delhi into a united front against Beijing. The recent test of India's Agni V nuclear-capable ballistic missile is largely seen as directed at China.

India and China fought a brief but nasty border war in 1962, and India claims China is currently occupying some 15,000 square miles in Indian territory. The Chinese, in turn, claim almost 40,000 square miles of the Indian state of Arunachai Pradesh. While Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh says that "overall our relations [with China] are quite good," he also admits "the border problem is a long-standing problem."

India and China also had a short dust up last year when a Chinese warship demanded that the Indian amphibious assault vessel Airavat identify itself shortly after the ship left the port of Hanoi, Vietnam. Nothing came of the incident but Indian President Pratibha Patil has since stressed the need for "maritime security," and "the protection of our coasts, our 'sea lines of communications' and the offshore development areas."

China's forceful stance in the South China Sea has stirred up tensions with Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, and Malaysia as well. A standoff this past April between a Philippine war ship and several Chinese surveillance ships at Scarborough Shoal is still on a low simmer.

China's more assertive posture in the region stems largely from the 1995-96 Taiwan Straits crisis that saw two U.S. carriers humiliate Beijing in its home waters. There was little serious danger of war during the crisis-China does not have the capability to invade Taiwan-but the Clinton Administration took the opportunity to demonstrate U.S. naval power. China's naval build-up dates from that incident.

The recent "pivot" by Obama administration toward Asia, including a military buildup on Wake and Guam and the deployment of 2,500 Marines in Australia, has heightened tensions in the region, and Beijing's heavy-handedness in the South China Sea has given Washington an opening to insert itself into the dispute.

China is prickly about its home waters-one can hardly blame it, given the history of the past 100 years-but there is no evidence that it is expansionist. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said in February "No country, including China, has claimed sovereignty over the entire South China Sea." Nor does Beijing seem eager to use military force. Beijing has drawn some lessons from its disastrous 1979 invasion of Vietnam.

On the other hand, Beijing is seriously concerned about who controls the region's seas, in part because some 80 percent of China's energy supplies pass through maritime choke points controlled by the U.S. and its allies.

The tensions in Asia are real, if not as sharp or deep as they have been portrayed in the U.S. media. China and India do, indeed, have border "problems," but China also describes New Delhi as "not competitors but partners," and has even offered an alliance to keep "foreign powers"-read the U.S. and NATO-from meddling in the region.

The real question is, can Asia embark on an arms race without increasing the growing gulf between rich and poor and the resulting political instability that is likely to follow in its wake? "Widening inequality threatens the sustainability of Asian growth," says Asian Development Bank economist Rhee. "A divided and unequal nation cannot prosper."

More than half a century ago former General and President Dwight Eisenhower noted that "Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every rocket fired signifies...a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed...this is not a way of life at all...it is humanity hanging from an iron cross."

Americans have ignored Eisenhower's warning. Asian nations would do well to pay attention.

This article originally appeared in Dispatches from the Edge. Photo by Samuelraj - Professional Photographer // CC 2.0

Coalition asks members to lobby for Paycheck Fairness Act

Mark Gruenberg — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:08:00 -0400

WASHINGTON - A wide alliance of women's rights, civil rights, community, and activist groups, including the Coalition of Labor Union Women, opened a campaign on May 23 to get their members nationwide to call their senators and lobby in the next few weeks for an equal pay for equal work law, the Paycheck Fairness Act.

The drive kicked off when Senate Democrats, led by Barbara Mikulski, D-Md. - a feisty former social worker who's also the longest-serving woman ever in Congress - announced that Senate leaders promised them a vote on the legislation the week of June 4, after lawmakers return from their Memorial Day recess.

The catch: The Paycheck Fairness Act needs the usual 60 Senate votes to overcome a prospective GOP filibuster. When it last came up, in the Dec. 2010 lame-duck session of a Senate with more Democrats than this one, it fell five senators short.

Mikulski explained the first equal pay law passed 49 years ago this month, when women earned 59 cents for every dollar a man earned. Now it's 77 cents. "Forty-nine years is enough," she declared.

Hence, the call by Mikulski and her colleagues, to have constituents contact their senators - especially the Republicans. The Senate has 51 Democrats, two Democratic-leaning independents, and 47 Republicans, one of whom is recovering from a stroke and can't vote. No Republican senators of either sex were at the press conference.

Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Al Franken, D-Minn., joined their female colleagues.

The bill is also a political problem for the GOP. "We're saying that this vote will show you're either for equal pay or you're not," Mikulski declared. She said voting for Paycheck Fairness would give Republicans a chance to "walk back" from what another senator, Washington's Patty Murray, called a long list of schemes in a "war on women."

The Paycheck Fairness Act has been marooned in the House for more than a decade, too. Its key provisions include outlawing employer bans on workers asking about pay, heavy fines, and triple damages for pay discrimination, and curbs on the excuses employers now legally use to justify unequal pay for equal work by equally qualified male and female workers.

The American Association of University Women, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Partnership for Women and Families and the National Women's Law Center organized the community-labor-civil rights-womens rights alliance for the bill. It includes CLUW, said Executive Director Carol Rosenblatt, who attended.

Photo via CLUW website.

The new health care law and you – Ask a doc!

Rachel DeGolia — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:49:00 -0400

CLEVELAND - A group of physicians here has formed a speakers bureau dubbed, "The New Healthcare Law and You - Ask a Doc!" With the help of staff from the Universal Health Care Action Network (UHCAN), the doctors began fanning out across the region this spring speaking to audiences of all kinds to inform people about the changes under way and new benefits from national health reform.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), referred to by some as "Obamacare," is being implemented over several years. Although the law was enacted in March 2010 and millions of people are already experiencing some of the benefits, most people are either unaware or misinformed as to its actual provisions.

At a recent meeting of AFSCME retirees, Drs. Rochele and Nathan Beachy, husband-and-wife family practitioners, shared their view of how the ACA is a big step toward transforming "our sick care system to a health care system." They described their personal "health care horror story" about their son who developed a brain tumor in his teens and who is now able to be on their insurance policy until age 26, thanks to the ACA.

The Beachys described the positive changes the ACA is bringing about in "care, costs and quality." They said, "No one should die for lack of insurance, no one should go bankrupt for getting sick, and payments will be tied to actual improvements in health."

Attendees at the AFSCME meeting were especially interested in learning about the 24 preventive services now available with no co-pay for Medicare beneficiaries under the ACA. They were very glad to get a checklist of these services, downloaded from www.healthcare.gov, so they could make sure their insurance companies and doctors abided by these new consumer protections that are also helping keep people healthy.

Photo: Bernard Pollack // CC 2.0

CWA president: We need mass movement to fix this mess

Mark Gruenberg — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:04:00 -0400

WASHINGTON (PAI) - The U.S. will stay mired in an "economy mess" of low growth, low-paying jobs, rising income inequality and worse unless it fixes its political processes, Communications Workers President Larry Cohen says.

"We won't fix the economy mess unless we fix the democracy mess," he stated in opening a May 22 discussion about how to create more jobs, and especially more jobs that pay well.

Cohen's remarks were seconded by Leo Hindery, a consultant heading his own firm, InterMedia Partners. The two spoke at the Center for National Policy in the second in its series of the national security implications of continuing high joblessness. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka opened the series several weeks ago.

Cohen and Hindery both identified ways to create, or save, high-paying jobs. Cohen's key point is that "you have to create demand" and the way to do that is to pay people good wages to make things. That's a constant theme of the entire union movement, he said. Other progressive groups have sometimes joined in, he added.

Ways to do so, they said, include investment in infrastructure, lessening the U.S. trade deficit, restoring the power of workers to organize and bargain collectively and increasing manufacturing's share of the workforce from its present 10% to at least double that.

But none of this will be accomplished without prior political reform, Cohen said, citing a graphic he distributed showing both CWA's goals and the lesser Obama administration goals for creating jobs. Both must clamber over a high political wall, he added.

Repeating points he has made frequently, Cohen said there are four ways to knock down that wall:

One is campaign finance reform to overcome the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, which opened politics to a cascade of corporate cash.

"Each presidential nominee, Obama and Romney, will spend over $1 billion. A Senate race costs north of $20 million, and a House race costs $5 million. Even a seat in the Maryland House of Delegates costs $250,000," Cohen said. Workers can't compete with such sums, while corporations and the rich provide them.

"We need not just an election, but a mass movement to change this," he stated.

The second is internal reform of the U.S. Senate, and particularly of its filibusters. Curbing the filibuster has been a Cohen and CWA cause for several years, with the Steelworkers also helping to lead that crusade.

Cohen told the group filibuster rules must be changed to reserve the talkathon - and the 60-vote threshold to shut it off - only for the most important issues, just as occurred during historic debates in the 1960s over civil rights. Like then, Cohen said, senators who want to try to talk a bill to death must physically and constantly stay in the Senate chamber to do so. USW President Leo Gerard has also made that point, declaring, "haul in the beds" for such marathons.

Right now, instead, "400 pieces of legislation" passed the Democratic-run 111^th Congress in 2009-2010 and disappeared to due to filibusters, Cohen said. Much of that was pro-worker and would have helped the economy, too, Cohen added.

Hindery jumped in to make the point that one of those bills - which he too says must pass - was the Employee Free Choice Act, to help level the playing field between workers and bosses in union organizing and in bargaining first contracts. Hindery called it the best economic revival measure Congress could have enacted. Actually, the GOP filibuster threat prevented EFCA from ever reaching the Senate floor and the House didn't bother approving it in 2009-10. They knew it would be a useless exercise.

The third major change Cohen advocated is comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to legalize undocumented workers. "When my great grandparents entered this country, was there a requirement to become a citizen? No. They came, and they were," he said.

The final change is expansion, not contraction, of voting rights. Forces fighting for contraction, Cohen reiterated, "are all orchestrated" and do so deliberately to deprive specific groups - minorities, college students and the elderly - of the right to vote.

Without those political changes, the two said, legislation to revive the economy, particularly through infrastructure, advanced job training and creating new factory jobs, will not get off the ground. And income inequality will continue to grow, they warned.

Hindery said that the answers to the economic mess from both the GOP and the Obama administration are inadequate. That's because both, he said, view the stuttering recovery as part of a normal business cycle - "and it's not."

Not only is the U.S. economy "broken" and leaving millions of more people behind, Cohen warned, but the U.S. "cannot depend on a deus ex machina - an outside force" to ride to the rescue. "Europe is more broken than we are," and China and Latin America cannot help, either, he warned.

Photo: Larry Cohen. Teresa Albano/PW

Activists abuzz over Bayer’s bee killing

Blake Deppe — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:40:00 -0400

Pharmaceutical corporation Bayer's pesticides has been a huge contributor to the decline of the bee population, and on May 16, some 90+ activists gathered in San Pablo Park in West Berkeley, California, near where one of the Bayer facilities was located, to protest the company's insect-killing. Many of the demonstrators were dressed up as bees.

The goal of what was called the "Bee-in at Bayer" was to draw attention to the fact that Bayer's chemicals are directly linked to Colony Collapse Disorder - the syndrome that leaves once-full bee hives empty and devoid of life.

"All we're saying is, 'give bees a chance'!" declared one protester. "Bees for our nation, not your corporation!" cried another. And yet another demonstrator held a sign that read, "Honk if You Like Bees." Many passersby did, indeed, honk. In fact, the protest reportedly received an enthusiastic and appreciative response. Finally, some of the activists also outlined the oft-ignored fact that Bayer once played a role as a chemical weapons manufacturer for Nazi Germany.

"Ninety percent of our food crops are pollinated by bees," noted a leaflet handed out by the organizers. "Our entire ecological system depends on them."

Many beekeepers attended the demonstration, including Kathryn Gilje, co-director of the Pesticide Action Network, an international grassroots coalition fighting for environmentally sound alternatives to pesticide. She commented that while, in the hive in her backyard, "the bees are doing just great; producing lots of honey," not all are so fortunate:

Another bee host said that her community of backyard bees slowly started to dwindle in numbers, and as she researched the situation, she realized that the culprits were two pesticides (Imidacloprid and Clothianidin), which are currently some of Bayer's best-selling products.

According to the Coalition Against Bayer network, one third of honeybees in the U.S. continue to die off per year.

And although Bayer promised to suspend production of Class 1 chemicals that immediately threaten human health, it has neither said nor done anything about the ones that affect insects, plants, and animals.

The activists eventually made a "beeline" for the nearby Bayer plant, where they were instructed to "swarm!" When no one working at the plant offered to meet with, talk, or listen to the protesters, a few organizers delivered a speech, culminating in the group symbolically presenting Bayer with the sarcastic 'Poisoned Heart Award.' That award was little more than a giant, lumpy sack dripping with a thick coating of Hershey's chocolate sauce.

In conclusion, the demonstrators dressed in yellow-and-black bee attire really drove the point home by shaking, stumbling, and collapsing onto the ground. "But I don't want to die!" cried a female would-be bee as she went down. "My honey!" cried another. "I haven't finished making my honey!"

Finally, if that hadn't been clear enough, two protesters raised a banner with a simple message: "Mystery Solved! Bayer is Killing Bees."

Photo: The Coalition Against Bayer Network.

Immigrant rights activists say keep families together

John Rummel — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:32:00 -0400

DETROIT - Pressure is growing on immigration authorities to release Gustavo Vargas.

Vargas, the father of four U.S. citizen children, has led a crime free life but now sits in a Monroe County jail. In his 23 years in the U.S., his only brush with law enforcement has been his immigration status.

"The Vargas family shows how desperately we need immigration reform now. Gustavo is a small business owner, he employs people, he's not stealing anyone's job, he's creating jobs" declared Chris Michalakis, President of the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO.

Michalakis made his appeal Friday while speaking at an Alliance for Immigration Reform (AIR) rally outside the Detroit offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Immigrant rights activists are demanding the Department of Homeland Security stick to its professed priorities of only deporting dangerous criminals and focus on people who pose a safety risk.

Vargas is an active member of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Southwest Detroit, where his wife Rogelia serves as a deacon. Petitions and letters demanding his release have been signed by congregants and community supporters and were given to ICE officials at the rally.

Mary Turner, who works in the office of State Representative Rashida Tlaib, D - Mich., told the crowd "we need more people like Mr. Vargas. He's paying taxes to the city of Detroit that so desperately needs money."

She worried what will happen to the family left behind as his wife and children will have to fend for themselves, possibly forced to go on welfare. "Does it make any sense?" she asked.

Turner spoke from the experience of her own family who also were once "immigrants without documentation." Many years previously, her father came north from Mexico following the footsteps of his great grandfather.

In contrast to today, her father was welcomed by immigration authorities when they arrived in Detroit and her parents and siblings all made many contributions to the new community that became their home.

"I hate the word illegal, nobody is illegal," she added.

Rogelia Vargas, Gustavo's wife, thanked AIR, the churches, and the labor unions for working to keep families united. "We are learning to get together to tell our stories, to not fear. We will continue to struggle until we win," she said.

Michalakis called on Congress and President Obama's administration to do more to keep families like the Vargas's together saying, "We cannot deport our way to prosperity."

Photo: Senator Coleman Young Jr., father of Leo Reilly of St. Anne's Church, AIR organizer Roxanne Rodriguez, President of the Detroit AFL-CIO Christos Michalakis, and Rogelia Vargas (with son) spouse to Gustavo. Alliance for Immigration Reform