WW News Service Digest #320
1) Action Defends Islamic Students
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) Rochester Rally says "No War"
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
3) Human Chain Defends Mosque
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
4) Solidarity Answers Xenophobia
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
5) Did Bosses Put Profits Before Safety?
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
6) Unions Compile Grim Toll of Missing Workers
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 20. syyskuu 2001 08:38
Subject: [WW] Action Defends Islamic Students
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 27, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
DETROIT CAMPUS: ACTION DEFENDS ISLAMIC STUDENTS
After the Islamic Student Center near Wayne State University
in Detroit had its windows shot out, two activists put out a
call on email to demonstrate against war and racism. Their
call was distributed over the internet and by telephone
within the progressive community. On Sept. 17 about 200
people, young and old, peace activists and the left, turned
out. They picketed in solidarity with the Islamic Student
Center and then marched through the Wayne State community,
finally ending on campus. A rally and speak-out was held.
--Jerry Goldberg
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 20. syyskuu 2001 08:38
Subject: [WW] Rochester Rally says "No War"
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 27, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
ROCHESTER: RALLY AT LIBERTY POLE SAYS "NO WAR"
fter the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center,
some 150 activists rallied Sept. 15 at the Liberty Pole in
downtown Rochester, N.Y. Speakers expressed grief at the
tragic loss of life but stressed that war is not the answer.
Anti-war events have taken place at the Liberty Pole since
the movement to stop U.S. aggression against Vietnam.
Members of the Islamic Center, Metro Justice, House of
Mercy, Pax Christi, International Action Center, Green Party
and the International Socialist Organization took part in
the Sept. 15 rally. The anti-war event drew a prominent
article in the local newspaper, the Democrat and Chronicle.
IAC activists who circulated a call for a Sept. 29 national
protest in Washington, D.C., against racism and Pentagon war
were immediately asked about the availability of bus seats
by some in the crowd. African American shoppers in the
downtown area also conveyed anti-war sentiments.
--Leslie Feinberg
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(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 20. syyskuu 2001 08:38
Subject: [WW] Human Chain Defends Mosque
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 27, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
CHICAGO AFTER RACIST ATTACKS: HUMAN CHAIN DEFENDS
MOSQUE
By Lou Paulsen
Chicago
Progressives in the Chicago area are discussing better ways
to come to the defense of Arab, Muslim and other Asian
peoples who face a continuing wave of racist attacks.
On two successive nights following the Sept. 11 disaster,
hundreds of racist white youths, waving American flags,
gathered in the southwest suburb of Oak Lawn and marched
toward a mosque in nearby Bridgeview.
Police in riot gear held back the racists, but shut down
access to the Arab community near the mosque, forcing people
to show identification to enter and leave. In talking with
media, the police referred to the mob as "showing their
patriotism."
Other assaults on people and property have taken place all
over the Chicago area. A south Asian gas station attendant
was assaulted twice in one day, the second time by a man
with a machete. A gasoline bomb was thrown into an Arab
community center, fortunately doing no damage, and gunshots
were fired into a shop in Gary. A cab driver was beaten by
two men, and a mosque in Chicago was vandalized.
As of Saturday police had reported a dozen attacks serious
enough to be called "hate crimes." There have been more
since, and other assaults may not have been reported to the
police. And verbal harassment is even more common.
Many Muslim women have been afraid to leave their homes in
traditional dress, and it was estimated by a Sun-Times
reporter that one third of the city's Muslim cabdrivers have
been staying off the job.
A young man told a Workers World Party meeting, "My
girlfriend's brother broke up one attack. A racist had
dragged a guy out of a convenience store and was beating him
up in the parking lot."
WORKERS OPPOSE RACIST ATTACKS
The vast majority of the working people are clearly opposed
to this sort of racist attack. Religious leaders and
community leaders have participated in vigils and interfaith
services with Muslims, and government officials have so far
denounced them and have promised arrests and prosecutions.
On Friday, over 100 people, organized by the Southwest
Organizing Project and the Southwest Youth Collaborative,
formed a human chain of solidarity around the Al-Salaam
Mosque on 63rd street at Homan. This will take place every
week during the Friday midday prayer service.
One paper reported that "Protestants and Catholics, whites,
blacks and Hispanics carried signs with the Muslim greeting,
Peace be upon you, Assalam Alaikum, and Christians, Jews and
others support our Muslim and Arab brothers and sisters.
But progressives in Chicago realize that more has to be
done. Workers have to make it clear that they won't just
"call the police," but will personally come to the defense
of the targets of racist attacks and assaults.
And, as an Arab American organizer pointed out, "Right now
it's been private people doing these attacks. But pretty
soon, it'll be the government. They'll attack individuals
and organizations, or sweep through the neighborhood
arresting people. That's when we'll need even more support."
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 20. syyskuu 2001 08:38
Subject: [WW] Solidarity Answers Xenophobia
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 27, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
COAST TO COAST, HUMAN SOLIDARITY ANSWERS WAVE OF
XENOPHOBIA
By Greg Butterfield
After Sept. 11, a wave of racist terror swept across the
United States. It targeted Muslims and Arab Americans, other
people perceived as "looking Middle Eastern," and people of
color in general.
Hundreds of violent incidents and threats have been
reported.
On a single day-Sept. 15-three immigrants living in the
western United States were killed in separate incidents.
Much of the violence has gone unreported by the corporate
media or been concealed amid the glorification of flag-
waving chauvinism since the attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon.
Officially, President George W. Bush and Attorney General
John Ashcroft condemned the attacks on Arabs and Muslims.
But their actions tell a different story.
These are not merely random, lamentable acts by "outraged"
individuals. The lynchings take place in the context of
government/media racist profiling of all Arabs and Muslims
as potential "suspects" in the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Bush administration's frenzied push toward a new war of
aggression in the Middle East, with the near-unanimous
consent of congressional Democrats, sent a signal to racist
forces that it was open season on immigrants and people of
color.
Attempting to further ratchet up this divide-and-conquer
atmosphere, the far-right Christian fundamentalists Rev.
Jerry Falwell and broadcaster Pat Robertson went on national
television to blame lesbians and gays, feminists, abortion
doctors, and supporters of church-state separation for the
World Trade Center disaster.
"A pattern of collective blame and scapegoating against Arab
Americans and Muslims seems to be emerging even before the
culpability of a single individual has been established,"
said Ziad Asali, president of the American Arab Anti-
Discrimination Committee, in a Sept. 12 statement.
SIKHS TARGETED
One of those slain was Balbir Singh Sodhi, a native of
Punjab, India. Sodhi practiced the Sikh religion and wore a
traditional turban and beard.
He had lived and worked in the United States for 10 years.
Sodhi managed a gas station in Mesa, Ariz., where he was
shot and killed.
Sodhi's killer, Frank Roque, later shot at a Lebanese worker
at another gas station, then fired into the home of an
Afghani American family. When he was arrested, Roque
shouted, "I stand for America all the way." (New York Times,
Sept. 17)
Sikhs, who are not Muslims and do not come from the Middle
East, report being targets of abuse in many areas because of
their appearance.
Another lynching victim, Waqar Hassan, was a gas station
manager and an immigrant from Pakistan who lived in a Dallas
suburb. The third victim, Adelal Karas, was an Egyptian
Christian living in San Gabriel, Calif.
Mosques and Islamic centers have been firebombed in Chicago,
Seattle, Cleveland, Denton, Texas, Smithtown, N.Y., and many
other cities. The firebombing of a Brooklyn, N.Y., mosque
was narrowly averted when the bomber got scared and fled.
Schools in one Louisiana parish were closed after Muslim
children were threatened. Many Muslim women won't leave
their homes, fearing their veils will make them targets.
On Aug. 12 and 13 in the Chicago suburb of Bridgeview, Ill.,
racist mobs carrying U.S. and Confederate flags tried to
march on a mosque. In another Chicago suburb, Palos Heights,
a Moroccan gas attendant was attacked by a machete-wielding
goon.
"I am afraid for my kids," said Taiseer Jadallah, a
Palestinian living in St. Petersburg, Fla., after a death
threat was taped to his truck's windshield.
A prisoner at FCC Coleman Low, a facility in Coleman, Fla.,
reported that Middle Eastern inmates "are being rounded up
and put in solitary confinement, where they are being
punished like offenders and then being mentally tortured by
guards that have advised them that in a state of war they
will be the first to be exterminated by gas."
By Sept. 15, some 210 incidents of violence or threats of
violence had been reported, according to the Council of
American-Islamic Relations.
LEGAL AND EXTRALEGAL THREATS
In some areas the scapegoating of Middle Eastern peoples has
spilled over into a general racist assault on all people of
color.
In Flint, Mich., a Latina student was subjected to slurs and
threats at her mostly white high school. "Kids taunted her,
saying, 'Go back where you came from,'" the girl's mother
told the Flint Journal. "She said, 'I'm American born.' They
said it doesn't matter-you're not white."
Legal and extralegal threats have created difficult
conditions for progressive movements, especially those led
by people of color. Al Awda, the Palestinian Right of Return
Coalition, has refocused a planned Sept. 23 march in New
York, in solidarity with Arab and Muslim people.
In Philadelphia, a Sept. 15 demonstration for political
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal was postponed. "There are serious
questions about the security situation here," explained the
International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
in a Sept. 14 statement. The group told of two local
activists being harassed by federal "anti-terrorist" agents
the day before.
"To add to this," the statement continued, "there have been
numerous attacks on both Arab and Muslim people and their
businesses in the city. One woman was attacked by a group of
men, and when she tried to report it [to the police] she was
told it did not happen."
Attacks have also been reported in Canada, Britain and other
imperialist countries. In Brisbane, Australia, a school bus
carrying Muslim children was stoned.
FALWELL BLAMES GAYS, WOMEN
Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, fundamentalist Christians
and Republican politicians, tried to heap fuel on the fire
Sept. 14.
On Robertson's "700 Club" television show-broadcast
nationally on the Fox Family Channel-Falwell said the World
Trade Center/Pentagon attacks took place because "God will
not be mocked."
Falwell continued: "I really believe the pagans, and the
abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the
lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative
lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way-all of them
who have tried to secularize America-I point the finger in
their face and say, you helped this happen."
Robertson agreed.
"The words of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson yesterday were
stunning," said Elizabeth Birch, executive director of the
Human Rights Campaign, a lesbian/gay/ bi/trans civil-rights
organization. "They are beyond contempt. They are
irresponsible at best, and a deliberate attempt to
manipulate the nation's anger at worst."
Birch continued, "The words of these men are similar to the
acts of equally contemptible retribution that are being
waged against people of Middle Eastern origin or appearance
in some areas of our country."
'SHOW TRUE MEANING OF SOLIDARITY'
Many progressive, anti-racist and anti-war individuals and
organizations have responded to the attacks under these
difficult circumstances. These largely spontaneous efforts
of people all over the country to show solidarity with those
under attack and to reject a militarist reaction by the
government are heartening, and will become a potent force as
their activities become more coordinated and organized.
In New York on Sept. 14, while Bush was leading a pro-war
rally in lower Manhattan, thousands gathered at Union Square
Park for an alternative vigil. The theme was: "Mourn the
victims. Stand for peace."
Many held signs reading: "Islam is not the enemy. War is not
the answer."
The park has continued to be a gathering place for
multinational crowds almost every evening.
In Columbus, Ohio, a "No to War, Yes to Peace" coalition was
formed after a large number of people, many African
American, went to the City Council and asked it to condemn
ethnic and religious scapegoating, defend civil rights and
liberties, and say no to war.
On campuses across the country, students began to mobilize
immediately. Groups have held rallies, vigils and joined
defense of threatened mosques.
September 20 has been set as a National Student Day of
Action Against Scapegoating Arab Americans and to Stop the
War.
Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labor Congress,
urged the union federation's 2.5 million members "to make it
a personal responsibility to protect and promote the
respect, safety and well-being of our Muslim or Arab sisters
and brothers. This is the time for us all to show the true
meaning of solidarity," he said.
A group of members of the Auto Workers union addressed a
letter "to our Arab American co-workers at the Ford Rouge
and other plants" in the Detroit area. It read in part:
"There are reports from around the U.S. about serious
problems experienced by Arab Americans and Muslims and their
institutions. ... As activists in Local 600, we want to be
informed about problems experienced by UAW members who are,
or who are perceived to be, Arab Americans or Muslims. We
want to help provide support for people affected by problems
like these."
The authors of the letter are drafting a resolution they
hope will be endorsed by the local.
The International Action Center announced it was changing
its Sept. 29 "Surround the White House" demonstration to
focus on building opposition to the war drive and the racist
attacks on Arab and Muslim peoples. Actions are also planned
that day in San Francisco and Los Angeles. For more
information, see related articles in this issue or visit
www.iacenter.org.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 20. syyskuu 2001 08:38
Subject: [WW] Did Bosses Put Profits Before Safety?
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 27, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
ORDERS TO "GO BACK TO WORK": DID BOSSES PUT
PROFITS BEFORE SAFETY?
By a financial district worker
New York
At 8:48 a.m. on the morning of Sept. 11, a hijacked American
Airlines flight 11 was turned into a missile and flown at
high velocity into the upper floors of the northernmost of
the twin towers in lower Manhattan. It began its journey in
Boston and was scheduled to go to Los Angeles. It was
seemingly chosen because the fuel tanks would be laden in
order to complete a cross-country trip.
The awesome towers of the World Trade Center have been the
first visual confirmation for any travelers approach ing New
York that they were nearing the metropolis.
Some 17 minutes after the first strike, a second commercial
jetliner repeated the act on the second tower. Within an
hour and a half after this second strike, both towers would
buckle under the weight of the top portions, which collapsed
from the effects of an inferno driven by jet fuel.
Temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees compromised the
structure.
Many people around the world have been glued to their
television sets since they first heard about these events.
Many stories have been coming out from eyewitnesses and
workers on the scene. One thing that happened that morning
is illuminating and worth some examination.
It was reported on several news broadcasts, and then
repeated on the Ananda Lewis Show on CBS-TV on Sept.17, that
shortly after the first hit, as people were trying to get
out of the second tower, an announcement came over the PA
system instructing them to go back to their desks because
"the structure is safe."
It is likely that many people ignored this asinine
instruction. But it is also likely that many obeyed it. We
can't know how many more people could have gotten out of the
building if the announcement had instead aided people with
proper evacuation instructions.
If such a large building is on fire, it is unconscionable to
tell people in it or anywhere near it to keep on working.
Unfortunately for us all, there is no conscience in the
drive for profit.
The bosses are concerned with as much profit as possible at
any cost. The chief concern of whoever authorized that
announcement was the amount of labor that would be lost if
people left their desks, even for safety.
In the coming period, you can look for businesses that were
affected by the events of Sept. 11 to be bailed out with
taxpayers' money. How will the families of the dead be
compensated? We will see. Time will tell.
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(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 20. syyskuu 2001 08:38
Subject: [WW] Unions Compile Grim Toll of Missing Workers
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 27, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
FROM JANITORS TO CLERKS: UNIONS COMPILE GRIM TOLL
OF MISSING WORKERS
By Shelley Ettinger
New York
New York is a union town. Union members toil in all its
great skyscrapers, even in the financial district where most
work places are not organized.
At the World Trade Center they ran elevators; did
maintenance, janitorial, engineering and construction work;
provided telecommunications for the towers and the city;
staffed government offices and post offices; worked in
stores and restaurants.
So it should come as no surprise that the Sept. 11 attack on
the World Trade Center took a heavy toll on the organized-
labor movement. Based on estimates provided by the AFL-CIO
in the first week after the catastrophe, it appears that
about one-fifth of the dead were union members.
The dead and missing union members include:
* 300 firefighters
* 204 Communications Workers members
* an unknown number of the 1,000 Service Employees building
maintenance workers
* hundreds of Carpenters union members
* 70 to 100 members of the Hotel and Restaurant Employees
* 50 to 75 members of the Public Employees Federation
* 52 members of Electrical Workers Local 3
* 45 emergency and Red Cross workers who were members of the
State, County and Municipal Employees union
* 40 members of the Civil Service Employees
Association/AFSCME
* 34 members of the Flight Attendants and Pilots unions
* up to 30 members of the Painters, Laborers, Steam Fitters
and other building-trades unions
* 16 members of the Office and Professional Employees
* three members of the Teachers union
* two members of the Operating Engineers
Then there were all the others--those who had not yet won
union representation--like the clerical workers, computer
operators and so on, whose labor was exploited for profit by
banks, brokerages, investment capital firms.
These workers reflected the face of New York. Descendants of
enslaved Africans and of the Indigenous peoples of this
continent. Recent immigrants from Latin America, Africa,
Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe. Children and
grandchildren of an earlier wave of immigrants--Jewish,
Italian, Irish.
Tribute to perished workers
An hour after the first plane hit, Pakito Arriaran of the
Hotel and Restaurant union representatives wrote:
"I worked with the 300 workers who worked on top of the
World Trade Center. This is dedicated to any who may have
perished. A Memory for the Workers of Windows on the World:
"For the year I worked as the representative for the 300
people who cut lettuce, baked tarts, broiled salmon, mixed
drinks, washed dishes, waited tables and set up banquets on
the top two floors of the World Trade Center, they were my
comrades and friends in a struggle to make this a better
world for all.
"The workers at Windows on the World came from Bangladesh,
Syria, Iran, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico,
Cuba, Algeria, Ivory Coast. These are just a few of the
countries that I can remember.
"I imagine that many of them were at work at 9 a.m. this
morning. I used to visit the night shift as they left and
the day shift as they arrived between 7 and 8.
"This group of people taught me what it means to listen, to
care and to struggle. I will not forget the day a dishwasher
named Robert Williams hugged me with watery eyes and
shouted, 'We did it' after 120 of his co-workers defended
his job and stopped the abuse of a mean-spirited supervisor.
"To my sisters and brothers at Windows, thank you for
teaching me much about myself, about struggle and about the
world we live in."
FIGHT FOR RIGHTS
In the weeks and months ahead, the task before organized
labor will be to fight for the rights of the immediate
families and survivors--and of the many more whose
livelihoods will be affected.
According to the AFL-CIO, "Some estimates suggest that
75,000-100,000 people will be unemployed as a result of the
attacks."
At this point there are many unanswered questions. What form
will survivor benefits take? How quickly will they be
provided? How long will they last?
With some 5,000 dead, hundreds must have been in same-sex
relationships. Under the "Defense of Marriage Act," signed
by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency is expressly forbidden to recognize same-
sex relationships. The labor movement will have to mount a
struggle to demand that same-sex survivors be provided for
without discrimination.
In fact, labor will be called on to mount a range of
struggles to defend workers' rights and avert a broad
catastrophe for the working class. The unions will have to
mobilize to demand benefits--for all, organized and
unorganized alike. These range from full support for the
families of the victims, to unlimited unemployment
compensation, to job training and the provision of union
jobs.
There are many workers in this city of Middle Eastern
ancestry. It will take a conscious and clear effort by the
labor movement to defend them against a racist, chauvinist
backlash and to counter bellicose appeals for vengeance
coming from elements in the government and the media.
The World Trade Center attack took a heavy toll on the
working class. The loss of each worker--union member and
unorganized--is deeply felt by the labor movement.
