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Monday, May 14, 2007
10% of voters in San Antonio voted in municipal elections. Registered voters number less than half of total population. Sad indeed.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Support the resistance in Oaxaca!
Friends: Eric Larson, an IWW member and long-time supporter of the SWU, is in grave danger along with many indigenous workers in a home in Oaxaca. Eric and his companeros could be seriously wounded or worse tonight and they’re asking for help immediately. Eric is a thoughtful, kind, and generous unionist and his comrades are remarkable activists as well. I know you receive many e-mail pleas but I implore you to take the time to respond to this one immediately. The ruling party could lay siege to their home any minute now. We don’t need anymore martyrs ripped from their families and friends in Oaxaca. The call for help from Oaxaca follows.
In Solidarity,
Daniel Gross
Please forward widely
Priistas are planning to remove CIPO [grassroots
indigenous organization] out of the neighborhood by
force!
This part of Santa Lucia is enemy territory. It is
near Barricade Three, the Príista attack of last
Friday, and the site of Brad Will’s murder. It’s also
where the CIPO house is located. When the Príistas
first set up their barricades, some were directly in
front of the CIPO house, one using materials that had
been propped up against the outside wall.
Now, less than a week after Brad Will’s murder, some
of the same Príistas have agreed to “dislodge” CIPO
from the neighborhood. If history, recent and
distant, teaches us anything, their method will be
violence. It is important that they know that acts of violence
will not go unseen, even in this small neighborhood
that they control.
Please contact some or all of those listed below; tell
them that if CIPO is attacked, that the Mexican state
is responsible. And please also keep this in mind as
solidarity actions are planned and carried out.
Contact the State Commission on Human RIghts in Oaxaca
at:
Central Oaxaca – 011 52 (951) 513 51 85
011 52 (951) 513 51 91
011 52 (951) 513 51 97
la Red Oaxaqueña de Derechos Humanos
Tel. 011 52 (951) 5141634
rodhmx@prodigy. net.mx
rodhmx@yahoo. com.mx
Vicente Fox Quesada
Presidente de la Republica
Residencia Oficial de los Pinos Casa Miguel Aleman
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec, C.P. 11850
Distrito Federal, Mexico
Telephone: 011 52 (55) 52772376
Fax: 011 52 (55) 527 723 376
E-mail directory at: http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/directorio/
Contact Nearest Mexican Consulate
Directory at http://mexonline.com/consulate.htm
http://www.StarbucksUnion.org
Friday, May 11, 2007
Historical revision? Thankyou Mr. Boner, ahem, I mean "Republica Leader" Boehner
At this point, the pro-endless war camp is getting smaller by the day. The republican propaganda masters have had to resort to lying and distortions of the truth to push their funding of the war through congress. Take John Boehner, the "Republican Leader" in the house. Twisting arms to silence opposition to continuation of the Iraq conflict, Mr. Boehner haughtily reminded members of the House that only one congressman voted against the war in 2002. It seems they are addicted to historical revision, because the actual number of votes against the congressional resolution was 133.
Seems like someone needs to go back and re-learn his math and history. Ah, and the one vote against the war.... You silly son of a bitch, THAT WAS WWII. So Mr. Bon'er, why don't you take your lying ass somewhere else and remember, lying on camera can get you burned.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Conservative Assault On America's Families
May 08, 2007
Beth Shulman is a lawyer and consultant focusing on work-related issues. She is the author of The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans. Shulman delivered these remarks at the Failure of Conservatism Conference http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/failure_conservatism_conference on May 3 in Washington, sonored by the Campaign for America's Future and The American Prospect.
Conservatism historically has seen government as a problem to overcome, an albatross. President Reagan stated it succinctly when he said, “we need to get government off our backs.” Conservatives usually justify this negative view of government in the name of freedom. They conflate freedom with unregulated markets, anti-unionism, low taxes and a rabid individualism. Without so-called government interference, people would be free to make their own choices. But what has this restricted view of government and the notion of freedom it embraces meant for America’s families today? In one word—disaster.
The “you are on your own” notion of government and freedom has meant that American families must live with stagnant wages at a time of high profits and productivity without a way to get ahead no matter how hard they try. It has meant health insecurity for workers and their families as fewer and fewer jobs provide health care coverage. It has meant that workers face their older years without the means they counted on to retire, as corporations have slashed traditional pension plans. And it has meant that half of Americans don’t have the fundamental right to take a day off from work when they are sick without losing a job or a paycheck.
It has meant parents having to forgo a child’s high school or college graduation or a PTA meeting because twenty percent of America’s workers do not have any vacation or personal days. It has meant parents tag teaming their shifts to provide their children supervision leading to increased divorce rates because they can’t afford child care. It has meant families who are more stressed out as jobs become more and more insecure. And it has meant more families just struggling to get by with one out of every three workers making less than what it takes to have basic self-sufficiency. All this has been dumped on the already sagging shoulders of working families while government has stood on the sidelines.
And as parents look to provide a better future for their children, it has meant coming up short. Today, it is only the wealthy who have the resources to provide their children the tools required to move up in our society—quality early education, good public schools and a college education. The rest of America’s children just have to do without.
This is a false freedom that forces us to make false choices. Americans aren’t free when they have to choose between paying the rent and providing child care for their children. Parents aren’t free when they must choose between being responsible workers and responsible family members. The elderly aren’t free when they must choose to continue working in their later years because they don’t have pensions. Families aren’t free when they have to declare bankruptcy when they can’t pay their hospital bills. Mothers and fathers aren’t free when they don’t have time to be with their children because they are working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. And children aren’t free when they can’t get the basic tools to succeed and fulfill their potential as human beings.
We can make different choices that would ensure that Americans who work hard can support themselves and their families. We are free to choose ways that will give families time to share with each other and acquire the means that they and their children need to succeed in our new global economy. But this involves a very different definition of freedom, one that presents a very different agenda that will move us closer to ensuring that America’s families can thrive.
This definition of freedom eliminates the false choices we are saddled with today. This freedom involves more than being left alone. Instead, it offers the opportunity to build healthy families and healthy communities. It involves an investment in people. It is a freedom that recognizes that no one can be free without the basic necessities of life, that we can’t be free unless we are all treated with the dignity and respect we deserve.
It is a freedom that recognizes the interconnectedness of us all as human beings and the critical role that our government plays as a protector of public values. It recognizes that government is a place where Americans come together to solve our most pressing problems and to determine how to best use our national resources for the common good.
In the past, government has successfully played a role in providing the public structures for all of us to succeed. As a nation, we determined that our elderly should not be impoverished or go without health care, so we created and continue to provide Social Security and Medicare. We determined that all children deserve the tools to be productive citizens, so we have public schools. And as a nation, we determined that it is in the interest of all of us to have a literate population, so we fund libraries. We passed the GI bill that gave millions of Americans the opportunity to go to college and buy their first homes. It is now time for our government to provide the same kind of opportunity supports that families need today.
Government can and must play the kind of role that it so successfully performed after World War II, in creating the largest middle class in America’s history. Only government can set minimum standards for wages, health coverage, health and safety, paid sick days, retirement security, and the right to organize a union that ensure that hard working Americans have the basics of a decent life. Only government can ensure that families can be both responsible workers and caring family members by updating the outdated workplace practices and supports.
Only government can play the pivotal role in leveraging our resources to provide what workers need to succeed in our new global economy, and create the supports for workers and their families as they move across jobs and/or in and out of the labor force as their life and jobs circumstances change over time. And it is government which has an irreplaceable role in ensuring that all children have the tools they need to fulfill their potential and that opportunity is not limited to the wealthiest among us.
The role of government is to ensure that the prosperity of our economy is broadly shared amongst all hard working Americans and their families and that we create a society in which all families can thrive. The conservatives have it wrong. It’s not about getting government off our backs. It’s about getting it back on our sides, the sides of working families.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
EdgeLeft: An Occasional Column
by David McReynolds Los Angeles saw, this week, a police riot, being covered a bit slowly by the media, but being covered (hard not to cover it when among those slugged by the cops were TV journalists). Meanwhile on the East Coast, the May 5th edition of the New York Times had an excellent and funny column by Jim Dwyer, on the front page of the Metro Section, dealing with Mayor Bloomberg’s secret police. What happened in Los Angeles was not an accident - I saw very much the same thing in Portland, Oregon, several years ago when I took part in a gentle demonstration (it might have been in May - I’ve forgotten) and was stunned to see the Portland police charge the demonstrators with special motorized vehicles, and clubs, when there had been no provocation (I was on the spot and there simply wasn’t - someone in charge of the police seemed to think it would be a good occasion to try out the newly acquired "military tactics" which municipal police across the nation have been learning). Dwyer’s column reported on the Police Department’s Intelligence Division tracking down an open letter by Jerry Goralnick, self-described as a "pacifist anarchist", as the police prepared for the GOP 2004 convention. Goralnick’s letter had been a compelling appeal for nonviolence, In the text of his open letter were suggestions urging activists not to see the police as adversaries, to "make contact with individual police officers for the purpose of establishing a meaningful human relationship". And the demonstrations were peaceful. I was present when the first group, organized by Ed Hedemann and others of the War Resisters League, stepped off from the site of the World Trade Center for a walk to mid-town. True, some of those who had gathered did plan, when they got close to the convention site, to stage a sit-down. I repeat - some of those gathered. Most of those gathered for that march had no intention of sitting down. I was baffled to see the marchers delayed for by the police. I went over to talk to Carmen Trotta, one of the organizers, to ask why the march hadn’t started. He said he didn’t know - the police had asked them to stop for a bit. But soon we had our answer - the police arrested the entire group for "refusing to move"!! (I should add that while I took photos of the event, showing the group peacefully awaiting for permission to march, I hadn’t joined that part of the demo because I didn’t feel like walking from the WTC site to Madison Square Garden and planned to join the demo later, by subway, which I did). The whole problem of the illegal mass arrests is now before the courts, but it was an example, though a less violent one, of the new "pre-emptive defense" being adopted from Portland to Los Angeles to New York. Back in my youthful days on the staff of War Resisters League, the New York "red squad" was called "BOSSI" - the Bureau of Special Services. I got to know some of the BOSSI officers as we worked with them explaining the demonstrations then being organized. Later the city announced that BOSSI had been dissolved, though everyone in the radical movement knew this was not true - every police department in a major city has some kind of intelligence agency and as we learned, under Mayor Bloomberg, the name has changed, the tactics have become laughable, but the reality is the same. It is a delicate matter, since there are real threats (I’m not even thinking of our current concern with terrorists) that involve groups on the political margin. Some have been racist groups, some have been groups such as the Jewish Defense League which used to organize "direct action" against Soviet officials. (I remember the famous pledge by Meir Kahane of the JDL that Yasir Arafat, who was then visiting the UN, would not leave New York City alive. Wehn I went to the Arafat reception at the UN I saw a couple of the old faces from BOSSI standing guard to protect Arafat. Ironically, Kahane himself was assassinated later by a gunman while at a Zionist conference in NYC). It is almost certainly true that if the Socialist Party was elected to run New York City, it would assign some officers to keep an eye on extremists oriented to violence. In the case of the Los Angeles police earlier this week, the occasion was a peaceful immigrant rally. It is possible there were some "black bloc" folks who may have been involved - but the footage I saw on CNN showed no provocation, just stunned, angry people being hit with clubs and fleeing rubber bullets, several of which found their targets, leaving badly bruised flesh. A continent apart, the same evidence of police out of control. The New York example would have been funny if it hadn’t been serious. Our tax money being waste on monitoring an open letter by a nonviolent anarchist urging demonstrators to treat the police in a gentle manner! First, there needs to be some kind of control over the police (one thinks at once of the long over-due civilian review board) which can monitor all police actions. Whether we like it or not, we need police. We have the routine problems of traffic, we have the problems of legitimate crowd control at large events, and we have, regrettably, the reality of crimes of various kinds. To make the matter concrete, what are we supposed to do if a strange man is wandering the halls of our building knocking on doors? Or if we hear loud and agonized screams coming from down the hall? Clearly, however, as Mayor Bloomberg’s handling of the New York Police Department shows, we need some agency that has an independent status and real clout. Second, the more serious problem, and the one demonstrated this week in Los Angeles, is the very deliberate militarization of our police departments, both in tactics and in weapons. This trend began prior to 9.11 and certainly has increased since then, and the objective is not simply to contain some terrorist act, but much more disturbing, to curb the legitimate right of the people to assemble and to petition. The direction the police are taking - with not nearly enough public concern - is toward eliminating public demonstrations. (In New York, a year or so ago, the police tried to basically close down a mass demonstration against the war - a demonstration that was entirely peaceful, posed no threat of disorder, but the handling of which did show that Mayor Bloomberg has no deep understanding of, or interest in, the Bill of Rights). These trends can only be reversed by a broad public concern. And these trends will inevitably repeat over time. We had the same problems during the Vietnam War, during the Civil Rights movement, the anti-nuclear movement - it has always been necessary to fight the various branches of government every ten years or so to restore some kind of balance. Los Angeles and New York both suggest that it is past time for a wide range of groups, conservative as well as liberal, to move to demilitarize the police and remind them that their job is to maintain public order, not to suppress peaceful dissent. - 30 - David McReynolds was on the staff of War Resisters League for nearly forty years and was the Socialist Party’s candidate for President in 1980 and 2000. He is retired and living with two cats on the Lower East Side. This column may be reprinted and circulated without permission.
Friday, May 4, 2007
Rightwing Xenophobia & Fascism
Convention ends with Satan and immigrants
CALEB WARNOCK - Daily Herald
Utah County Republicans ended their convention on Saturday by debating Satan's influence on illegal immigrants.
The group was unable to take official action because not enough members stuck around long enough to vote, despite the pleadings of party officials. The convention was held at Canyon View Junior High School.
Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan's minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty.
In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants "hate American people" and "are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they won't do."
Illegal aliens are in control of the media, and working in tandem with Democrats, are trying to "destroy Christian America" and replace it with "a godless new world order -- and that is not extremism, that is fact," Larsen said.
At the end of his speech, Larsen began to cry, saying illegal immigrants were trying to bring about the destruction of the U.S. "by self invasion."
Republican officials then allowed speakers to defend and refute the resolution. One speaker, who was identified as "Joe," said illegal immigrants were Marxist and under the influence of the devil. Another, who declined to give her name to the Daily Herald, said illegal immigrants should not be allowed because "they are not going to become Republicans and stop flying the flag upside down. ... If they want to be Americans, they should learn to speak English and fly their flag like we do."
Senator Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, spoke against the resolution, saying Larsen, whom he called a "true patriot and a close friend," was embarrassing the Republican Party.
"I agree with 95 percent of this resolution but it has some language that is divisive and not inspiring other people to its vision," he said. "This only gives fodder to the liberal media to give negative attention to the Republican Party."
Joel Wright, a member of the Cedar Hills City Council, was booed as he opposed the resolution.
"This might be the most divisive issue in the Republican Party," he said. "I support President Bush but he needs to support this issue harder."
When Wright said "the economic benefit (of illegal immigration) outweighs the downside" he was jeered. He warned that the Republican Party of California had "killed themselves" by taking a hostile stance against illegal aliens.
He also said the LDS Church has studied the issue and tried to determine whether illegal aliens could be given temple recommends and allowed to serve missions but "gave up" because the issue was too complex. He ended by saying "President Bush needs to fix this now" and was booed again.
Larsen was allowed to finish the debate with a one-minute speech.
"If the Democrats take over the country, we will be dead, and we will have abortion and partial-birth abortion and the Republican Party will go into extinction," he said. "Nancy Pelosi and the ACLU would oppose this (resolution)."
A member of the audience moved that the convention suspend its rules to allow the "objectionable part" of Larsen's resolution to be stricken, retaining only the final paragraphs of the resolution, which condemn illegal immigration. Eventually party officials counted all delegates in attendance, only to discover that, with 299, they were about 30 short of a quorum and could take no action.
"I did ask people to stay so we could have this discussion," said Senator Curt Bramble, R-Provo, who chaired the convention. Bramble had earlier asked those gathered not to thwart a discussion on the resolution, saying it would be "good for the party."
In other business, those gathered voted against removing some of the party's leadership.
Letters supporting the re-election of party chairwoman Marian Monnahan and secretary Susan Bramble were mailed in envelopes bearing the party's return address, causing delegate Russell Sias to demand they be removed from office. A spokesperson for Alexander's Print Advantage, which handled the mailing, spoke at the convention, saying employees had mistaken put the address on the envelopes and the company took full responsibility for the snafu.
In a speech, Enid Greene, state Republican Party chair, announced to applause that she will remarry in a few months. Greene's first marriage came to an infamous end during her tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives when her husband, Joe Waldholtz, who was her campaign manager, was charged with embezzling. He eventually pled guilty to campaign fraud and other charges.
Greene said she was disappointed in BYU professors who protested Dick Cheney's visit to campus, calling them "self-appointed intellectuals."
"I'm not calling for BYU to fire them but if no one signs up for their classes ..." she said. "If they say the Vice President doesn't have anything to say we want to hear, I'm not interested in having my daughter learn from them."
All of the speakers praised those gathered. Lt. Governor Gary Herbert said Utah County Republicans are "guided by correct principles" and are the "best of the best" of the Republican Party.
Bramble assailed those who would called the local Republican Party "broken," saying the party was accountable and accomplishing good work, including the approval of school vouchers and granting UVSC university status.
Congressman Chris Cannon and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff both received a standing ovation from some members of the audience. Cannon said Democrats have just as many corrupt party members as the Republicans but the media does not report Democratic ethics violations.
Shurtleff said that while Americans are divided on the war in Iraq, Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson should not refer to President Bush as a war criminal.
Caleb Warnock can be reached at 443-3263 or cwarnock@heraldextra.com.
This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B1.Thursday, May 3, 2007
Police brutality in Los Angeles against non-violent protesters (and journalists)
Authorities Probe Police Response
By PETER PRENGAMANThe Associated Press
Thursday, May 3, 2007; 8:23 AM
LOS ANGELES -- Investigators will review hundreds of hours of video of an immigration rally where police clashed with the crowd, wielding batons and firing rubber bullets to break up the demonstration, the police chief said Thursday.
Chief William J. Bratton said in an appearance on CBS's "Early Show" that he was "not happy" when he watched videotape of the events at MacArthur Park late Tuesday, when officers fired 240 nonlethal rounds to clear demonstrators.
He said police and news media video would aid investigations into whether the officers' tactics were appropriate.
"We have to really try to determine exactly what happened. We're fortunate in this instance that we have a lot of video to look at," Bratton said. "We have literally hundreds of hours of video to review to make our decisions."
News images showed police hitting a television cameraman to the ground, shoving people who were walking away from officers and injuries from the rubber bullets.
Rally organizers denounced the police action as brutal.
"They were pushing children, elderly, mothers with their babies and beating up on the media" said Angela Sanbrano, an organizer.
The clashes started around 6 p.m. Tuesday, when police tried to disperse demonstrators who moved into a street, according to rally organizers and reporters. Authorities said several people threw rocks and bottles at officers, who used batons to push the crowd back to the sidewalk and then cleared the park.
A police order to disperse was in English and from a police helicopter, a likely ineffective tactic because of the noise and because many at the protest were Spanish-speakers, Bratton said at a news conference Wednesday.
Bratton said police were initially trying to deal with 50 to 100 "agitators."
"The individuals were there to provoke police," Bratton said. "Unfortunately, they got what they came for."
Police union leaders urged against a "rush to judgment."
"Our officers gave a legal dispersal order and were met with violence. In the coming days it will become clear what transpired," said Los Angeles Police Protective League President Bob Baker in a statement.
Seven officers suffered minor injuries, and another was pushed off his motorcycle, Bratton said. About 10 other people were treated for minor injuries, though authorities expected the number to rise.
The investigations already under way include an overall departmental review of tactics, an internal affairs investigation into the behavior of the officers and commanders on the scene, and an independent review by the Inspector General, the investigative arm of the Police Commission, which sets policy for the Police Department.
John Mack, president of the five-member Police Commission, said he was "deeply disturbed and very disappointed" by the news images.
"This was not a pretty picture. This incident raises serious concern regarding the use of force by some individual officers," said Mack, who is one of Bratton's bosses.
Democratic Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, who represents the park district, also asked Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley to launch an independent investigation into the officers' actions.
He said police deliberately led troublemakers back to the peaceful marchers before beginning their assault.
"The only logical conclusion I can come to is that somebody wanted it to bleed into the march so that they can do some target practice on some of the immigrants that were marching," Nunez said.
News organizations also condemned the Police Department for its use of batons and riot guns against members of the media.
"We are sorry for what happened to our employees and find it unacceptable that they would be abused in that way when they were doing their job," said Alfredo Richard, spokesman for the Spanish-language network Telemundo, whose anchor and reporter were hurt.
Bratton promised to investigate the treatment of reporters.
"I'm not seeking to defend it at all," he told the "Early Show." "That's why we're having investigations."
___
Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Don Thompson in Sacramento and Jeremiah Marquez and Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles.
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