WW News Service Digest #298
1) National outrage squashes Bush's anti-gay deal
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Striking workers: Boycott Dunkin' Donuts
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) Settlement in Louima case
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
4) Determined School of Assassins protesters face prison
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
5) Vietnamese struggle against war's legacy
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
6) A worker by any other name
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 26, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SALVATION ARMY WON'T GET PAID TO DISCRIMINATE:
NATIONAL OUTRAGE SQUASHES BUSH'S ANTI-GAY DEAL
By Imani Henry
They thought all they would need was a handshake. The
Salvation Army, the largest charity in the country and
notorious for its anti-choice and anti-gay stances, wanted a
small favor from the Bush administration.
Its request? That religious charities receiving federal tax
dollars be exempted from obeying the over 230 local laws
barring discrimination against lesbian, gay, bi and trans
(LGBT) people.
According to a confidential memo leaked in the July 10
Washington Post, the Salvation Army agreed to spend between
$88,000 and $110,000 a month lobbying for Bush's "charitable
choice"--also known as "faith-based"--initiative. In
exchange, the White House would issue a federal guideline
overriding local and state non-discrimination ordinances,
allowing religious organizations to discriminate on the
basis of someone's sexuality.
The internal document also stated that "the White House has
already said that they are committed to move on the Army's
objectives when the legislation carrying the charitable
choice provisions passes the House of Representatives."
The Post revelation unleashed a torrent of public outrage
from civil rights groups, gay and straight. If the Bush
administration could support discrimination against LGBT
people by religious organizations, then what other group or
peoples would be next?
The New York Times described a "flurry of meetings and
telephone calls" both to and among the senior White House
staff members, many scrambling to make statements claiming
to know nothing of the request. By the evening of July 10--
the same day the Post article appeared--Bush succumbed to
the pressure and declined the SA's request altogether.
The Salvation Army also had to do its own back-peddling. On
July 13, the National Commander of the Salvation Army, John
Busby, issued a statement that the team of lobbyists hired
to promote Bush's faith initiative had been disassembled.
ANTI-LGBT AGENDA
"It's appalling that a so-called Christian institution would
seek to mislead others by hiding their bigotry under the
guise of charity and religious principles," stated National
Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF) Executive Director Lorri
L. Jean. "And the White House is involved not only in
plotting a way to promote bigotry, but also in asking the
American people to pay for discrimination."
Maintaining "the bell-ringing, brass band playing, friend-in-
deed" image of the SA is paramount to the organization's
credibility. It is estimated that over 36 million people
receive services, from hospitals to soup kitchens, while
they are barraged with conservative propaganda.
SA flouts its homophobic propaganda on its website. It
refuses to offer health care to the domestic partners of
45,000 employees, mostly very low-paid workers. It cites
homosexuality as one of several examples of "sexual
misconduct," along with any extramarital sex. In this way
both LGBT and straight couples are denied the right to
health care for their partners.
And yet SA maintains that it does not discriminate against
LGBT people during hiring or as employees, except for not
hiring openly LGBT people as ordained ministers.
The group is handed millions of dollars of both federal and
local funding at the same time as it fights to overturn
local laws banning discrimination based on sexual
orientation. In 1998, the San Francisco-based Human Rights
Commission, one of the largest gay groups in the country,
ordered SA to offer domestic partnership benefits or lose a
$3.5-million city contract. For one whole year SA refused to
comply, and was finally forced to forfeit its contract.
BUSH'S "FAITH-BASED" ATTACK
This latest effort by the religious right wing only fueled
Bush's effort to get his faith-based initiative passed by
Congress this year. According to the NGLTF, Bush proposed as
much as $8 billion the first year and $80 billion over the
next 10 years, with federal funds going to churches and
other faith-based institutions.
Since the 1996 welfare "reform" law--passed by the
Republican-led Congress and signed by former President Bill
Clinton--religious organizations have been eligible to
receive tax dollars for delivery of social services. Former
U.S. Senator, now Attorney General, John Ashcroft sponsored
these initiatives.
Prior to 1996, because of the long struggle in the U.S. to
separate church and state, religious groups that received
federal money to provide social services had to follow
strict guidelines. The NGLTF and other groups feel that
under Bush's faith-based initiative, religious groups may
now be given money "with no demand for fiscal
accountability, no requirement that religious institutions
not discriminate and no safeguard against recipients of
social services being subjected to proselytizing and other
forms of coercive activity."
Currently, there are provisions within existing federal law
that give religious groups the right to discriminate against
other religious groups and to only hire people of the same
faith.
At the same time, there is no federal law that can be used
to fight anti-LGBT discrimination on the job, at school, or
in securing housing. Every local and state ordinance--the
over 203 laws won on campuses, in small towns or major
cities--is a victory in the struggle towards LGBT
liberation.
The religious right feel more emboldened in this period.
They feel they have an ally in the White House, willing to
pay them millions to further their agenda.
But the July 10 victory shows that there is and will be a
powerful movement--gay and straight united--able to push
back racist, sexist or anti-gay attacks.
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: keskiviikko 25. hein�kuu 2001 06:28
Subject: [WW] Striking workers: Boycott Dunkin' Donuts
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 26, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
STRIKING WORKERS SAY: BOYCOTT DUNKIN' DONUTS
By Joe Piette
Philadelphia
After picketing and rallying for six weeks, 150 members of
United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1360 at the Dunkin'
Donuts Mid-Atlantic Distribution Center in Swedesboro, N.J.,
are calling on the AFL-CIO to initiate a national boycott of
Dunkin' Donuts products.
UFCW Local 1360 President Clay Bowman charged that Dunkin'
Donuts has cut off health benefits for striking workers. He
also says that the scab Labor Ready Inc. is supplying
warehouse workers and drivers from as far away as South
Carolina to replace striking workers.
In a speech to a New Jersey AFL-CIO conference on June 19,
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called for solidarity with
Dunkin' Donuts workers. "Despite the fact that the Dunkin'
Donuts workers won a bargaining order last year, the company
still has not negotiated a union contract and continues to
fire union activists," he said. "I want these employers, the
public and most important these workers to know that the
recognition strike at Dunkin' Donuts and the campaign at
Deborah are being supported by more than just union members
in New Jersey. They are supported by 64 unions of the AFL-
CIO, 13 million members in these unions and 40 million men,
women and children living in union households in our
country, and together we will bring both of these renegade
employers to justice."
Local 1360 UFCW workers at the non-profit Deborah Heart and
Lung in Browns Mills, N.J., are also on strike.
DUNKIN' DONUTS UNFAIR TO WORKERS
After three years of union grievances, the National Labor
Relations Board found 70 instances of unfair labor
practices. The company has not remedied these practices
despite a federal judge's order. In fact, workers have filed
30 more charges of unfair practices since the ruling.
Striking Dunkin' Donuts workers have maintained an around-
the-clock vigil at the Dunkin' Donuts distribution center
just outside of Philadelphia. UFCW members and supporters
have also held several rallies in center city Philadelphia,
and have leafleted at area Dunkin' Donut stores.
"It is obvious to us that the strings on the company's side
are being pulled by Dunkin' Donuts, Inc., and its parent
company, Allied Domecq, and that their sole objective is to
break this effort to bring the benefits of collective
bargaining to the employees at the Mid-Atlantic Distribution
Center (MADC)," said Bowman in a July 7 press statement.
In addition to boycotting Dunkin' Donuts, Local 1360 is
asking supporters to call the MADC at (800) 873-6231 and
tell them to stop their anti-labor activities. You can also
join their picket line at the Commodore Industrial Park, 501
Arlington Blvd., Swedesboro, N.J. Call Rose Kelly,
Organizing Director of UFCW 1360 at (856) 767-4001, ext.
312, for more information.
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: keskiviikko 25. hein�kuu 2001 06:29
Subject: [WW] Settlement in Louima case
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 26, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
$8.5 MILLION SETTLEMENT IN LOUIMA CASE:
CITY, COP "UNION" HELD ACCOUNTABLE
By Heather Cottin
New York
When the police tortured Abner Louima in a bathroom in
Brooklyn's 70th precinct station on Aug. 9, 1997, leaving
him bleeding internally, they warned him they would kill him
and his family if he said anything.
After four years of struggle, New York City authorities were
forced to award the Haitian American $8.75 million in
damages. This includes an unprecedented $1,625,000 payment
from the Police Benevolent Association, the first time any
police "union" in the United States has had to pay for the
ravages of police brutality.
Abner Louima did not remain silent. After a "life and death
battle" in the hospital as a result of having a broken broom
handle jammed into his rectum and his throat, Louima and his
supporters fought back.
For four years, the Haitian community and other anti-police
brutality activists organized to protest this heinous police
crime. Marches and rallies swelled to 10,000 people
demanding justice for Louima.
Because of the tremendous outpouring of rage against the
torture--especially after more cop killings of Aswan Watson,
Amadou Diallo, Anthony Baez and Patrick Dorismond--several
cops involved in Louima's torture were jailed. The case
brought worldwide attention to the epidemic of police
brutality under the administration of Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani.
Black and Latin communities in cities around the U.S. are
under essentially police-state conditions. Neighborhoods are
occupied by predominantly white police forces.
These conditions generate protest. The epidemic of racist
brutality is not confined to New York, as shown by an
uprising against police murders of African Americans in
Cincinnati. From Philadelphia to Los Angeles, from Chicago to
San Francisco, thousand of incidents have enraged the
communities where predominantly Black and Latin communities
face daily assaults by occupying police armies.
In the United States, the majority of people shot and killed
and beaten by police are people of color.
"Since that day four years ago, I have vowed to do
everything I can to ensure that the torture and cover-up I
suffered will not be inflicted on my children or anyone
else's children," Louima said after the verdict.
The settlement reportedly will end the policy allowing
police officers 48 hours of silence before they have to
answer questions in brutality cases--a policy that
strengthens the infamous "blue wall of silence."
"Mine is just one case, so much more needs to be done,"
Abner Louima stated.
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: keskiviikko 25. hein�kuu 2001 06:30
Subject: [WW] Determined School of Assassins protesters face prison
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 26, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
DETERMINED SCHOOL OF ASSASSINS PROTESTERS FACE PRISON
By Heather Cottin
On July 17, 19 members of the U.S.-based School of the
Americas Watch (SOAW) reported to federal prisons across the
U.S. to begin three- to six-month prison terms. Their
"crime" had been a November protest at the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation--formerly
known as the School of the Americas--in Fort Benning, Ga.
They, along with seven others, had been convicted of
"criminal trespassing" on May 23.
At a rally held at the gates of Pekin Prison in Illinois,
where nine women of the 19 activists were confined,
demonstrators also protested the expansion of Plan Colombia
under the Bush administration's "Andean Initiative."
The jailed activists range in age from 19 to 88. Rebecca
Kanner, one of those incarcerated on July 17, explained why
they had risked imprisonment. The action was about "bringing
truth to the lie that SOA/WHISC helps Latin American
governments to promote stable democracies."
"This is an obscene lie," said Kanner. "The opposite is the
truth. When Panama kicked the School of the Americas out of
its country in 1984, the president declared that the SOA is
'the biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.'"
After years of increasing protests at the School of the
Americas, spearheaded by SOAW, the only action the
government has taken has been to rename this training center
for military leaders and torturers.
The United States government is planning a major expansion
in its Latin America security apparatus and a massive
increase for Latin American military spending in 2002. Over
$600 million will be sent to fund the counterinsurgency war
in Colombia, bringing the two-year total to nearly $2
billion. The new "Andean Initiative," an attempt to
regionalize the war against the Colombian insurgency,
includes an 82-percent increase in military and police aid
to Peru, a 220-percent increase to Panama, and an
extraordinary 345-percent increase in support of the
repressive forces in Brazil.
Social conditions in Latin America have deteriorated so
rapidly in the last year that the U.S. government has
responded in the only way it knows how: military support for
repressive regimes. At the same time, there is increasing
opposition there to the economic policies that have created
a huge $750-billion debt that is "unpayable," in the words
of Venezuelan Vice President Beatriz Paredes Rangel. This
was a conclusion previously reached at a Latin American Debt
Summit hosted in Havana in 1985.
The SOA/WHISC is a military training compound where the
Pentagon trains Latin American military officers in
repressive techniques. Typical of SOA graduates is former
Guatemalan dictator Efrain Rios Montt, responsible for the
murder of over 200,000 Indigenous people. Montt is currently
trying to make a political comeback, despite protests
including a lawsuit filed by Nobel Peace Prize winner
Rigoberta Menchu for genocidal crimes against the Indigenous
population.
Dozens of Colombian military officials tied to brutal
paramilitary death squads have been trained at the SOA.
School of the Americas Watch has reprinted several of the
training manuals on its web site, include interrogation
techniques, the formation of "black lists," and
"neutralizing" counter-intelligence targets.
The SOAW activists' determination shows the growing movement
in the United States to support the struggles of the people
of Latin America and to oppose the militarism of the U.S.
government.
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: keskiviikko 25. hein�kuu 2001 06:30
Subject: [WW] Vietnamese struggle against war's legacy
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 26, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
GAINS IN EDUCATION FOR WOMEN:
VIETNAMESE STRUGGLE AGAINST WAR'S LEGACY
Ha Thi Khiet, president of the Vietnam Women's
Union and a member of the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of Vietnam, spoke with a meeting
of supporters and friends from the United States in New York
on July 12. Khiet, a member of the Tay national minority and
chairperson of the National Committee for the Advancement of
Women in Vietnam (NCFAW), was in the city to attend a United
Nations meeting on the status of women.
Khiet told the meeting that NCFAW is a network of committees
organized in cities and villages throughout Vietnam to
represent and advocate for women's rights and advancement.
Citing some of the progress made, she pointed out that her
country has achieved 88 percent literacy among women; women
make up 46 percent of the students in higher education.
As a result of the U.S. imperialist war against Vietnam,
women are still suffering from the devastating effects of
the huge amount of dioxin-containing Agent Orange defoliant
dropped on the country. High rates of birth defects, said
Khiet, is a problem the Vietnamese will face for generations
to come.
In particular, the Vietnam Women's Union and NCFAW
concentrate on improving the economic status of women
through job training. They are also involved in campaigns to
fight the trafficking in women and young girls and the
spread of AIDS/HIV that have plagued many poor Asian
countries with the encroachment of the Western imperialist
powers into their economies.
Khiet reported that the UN has cited Vietnam as among the
best examples of progress in the area of legal instruments
to protect women's rights. She noted that the Vietnamese
Constitution guarantees equal pay for equal work.
--Naomi Cohen
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: keskiviikko 25. hein�kuu 2001 06:31
Subject: [WW] A worker by any other name
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 26, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
EDITORIAL: A WORKER BY ANY OTHER NAME
Last year the average net worth--what you own minus what you
owe--of people in the United States dropped for the first
time since 1945, when the government started keeping these
statistics. It has declined an additional 4 percent so far
this year.
This news comes on top of revelations that 401(K) retirement
accounts have taken a bath in the stock market, losing 10
percent in value last year. These workers' savings have
continued to evaporate in 2001.
Boosters of capitalism love to advise the better-paid
workers that they are really part of the middle class and
have nothing in common with the most oppressed. It has been
a strategy of the bosses to dilute class consciousness by
offering these workers stock options and other financial
packages instead of pay increases or better benefits. This
kind of compensation for labor is alluring when the stock
market is going up. A few years ago, workers with quickly
growing 401(K) accounts or some other kind of investment
nest egg could very well feel they had moved up socially.
Now reality is setting in with a shock. Workers who thought
their old age was secure, or that they had enough money set
aside for their kids' education or the down payment on a
house, are now looking in disbelief at the erosion of what
they had scrimped to set aside.
Every capitalist crisis teaches profound lessons. The most
important is that workers are a social class with
fundamental interests in common. Our strength lies in our
unity, our ability to act together to protect our interests
against the bosses who exploit us. When workers are induced
to think of themselves as part of some amorphous middle
class, based on income or money in the bank, they lose this
sense of identity with others who are exploited.
When investments go sour, who can you unite with to regain
what you have lost? No one. It's each investor alone--dog
eat dog--and in the long run all are at the mercy of the
really big capitalists. But when workers unite and organize
they can force the bosses to grant concessions like raising
pay, improving conditions, cutting the workday. An increase
in base pay is a sure thing; a stock option is just a
lottery ticket.
It's the people we work alongside every day who are our
natural allies in these increasingly hard times. Build
solidarity in struggle with them and you've got something.
