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LETTERS: Jan. 19
January 18, 2008‘Right to work’ scam I sent this letter to the Oakland (Mich.) Press: The far-right is on the move again. These are people with heavy pockets and bulging bank accounts. And, by gosh, they are never satisfied with all the gold and glitter, and want to add to their misbegotten fortunes by further exploitation of the American working family. So, lo and behold, they are trying to collect enough signatures...
Read moreReporters diary:The American people have won me over
January 12, 2008Before the winter holidays I was assigned to go to Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 3 so I could cover the presidential caucuses for the People’s Weekly World. Honestly, I was quite nervous, but as time passed I became more excited than ever. I knew in the end this trip would be worth the experience. And let me tell you, I came back fired up! PWW labor editor John Wojcik...
Read moreFired up for change. It started in Iowa
January 11, 2008DES MOINES, Iowa — Fed up with the far right’s 30-year legacy of fear, division and hate, the American people are using the 2008 elections as a movement for change. Riding a tidal wave unleashed by Iowa voters, Sen. Barack Obama achieved a stunning victory here Jan. 3 and came in a close second to Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire on Jan. 8. In both states, white voters waited in...
Read moreLabor alive and well as new year arrives
December 21, 2007A review of the recent past and a peek into the nearby future of the labor movement reveals a level of activity reminiscent of the militancy that built industrial unions more than half a century ago. From breaking the GOP grip on Congress in 2006 and the current wave of strikes to new mobilizations for a fundamental shift in the balance of political forces in 2008, labor is proving that...
Read moreTHIS WEEK IN LABOR: Dec. 15
December 14, 2007Labor cites the Bush record The AFL-CIO reported this month that since Bush has been in office, 5 million Americans have slipped out of the “middle class” into poverty and 8.5 million people have lost their health insurance. During his tenure, median household income for working families has gone down by $2,500, over 3 million manufacturing jobs have been lost and 3 million workers have lost their pensions. Wages and...
Read moreLabor leaves no stone unturned
November 30, 2007Organized labor is flexing its muscles, showing that it is tired of taking it on the chin. If the unions have their way, between now and Election Day 2008, even the ultra-right lock on the White House and Congress could be broken. Unions flexed their muscles in off-year election campaigns that ended in victories Nov. 6. Thousands of union members combed neighborhoods, buttonholed people at worksites and operated phone banks...
Read moreLabor leaving no stone un-turned
November 21, 2007Organized labor is flexing its muscles, showing that it is tired of taking it on the chin. If the unions have their way, between now and Election Day, even the ultra-right lock on the White House and Congress could be broken. Unions flexed their muscles in off year election campaigns that ended in victories Nov. 6. Thousands of union members combed neighborhoods, button-holed people at worksites, and operated phone banks...
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Two tales of one city: First the death, now the resurrection
November 16, 2007NEW ORLEANS — It wasn’t the hurricane that almost killed this city. From day one, after Katrina, the Bush administration used this town as a laboratory to experiment with every type of right-wing social engineering scheme imaginable, and if it weren’t for the labor movement and its allies, they just might have succeeded. Trafficking in human labor is one of the countless ways that big business succeeds in lowering wages,...
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THIS WEEK IN LABOR: Nov. 3
November 02, 2007Union demands apology The United Steelworkers demanded an apology from the Wall Street Journal Oct. 24 on behalf of its 1.2 million members in the U.S. and Canada. The newspaper grossly over-reported a USW local union officer’s compensation in a vitriolic, error-filled editorial last week, ostensibly aimed at congressional Democrats who voted to trim $2 million from the Office of Labor Management Standards’ proposed $50 million 2008 budget. In a...
Read moreLETTERS: Oct. 27
October 26, 2007Wildfires, climate change and Iraq All eyes and ears have been on San Diego, Calif., in recent days as over a half million people have had to be evacuated from their homes due to the most destructive fire in this area’s history. Although there have been a small number of people injured and few deaths, billions of dollars worth of homes have been destroyed. I believe the way the California...
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