WW News Service Digest #331
1) People on public assistance in NYC in crisis
by WW
2) SOA Watch to protest terrorist training
by WW
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (WW)
Date: keskiviikko 10. lokakuu 2001 14:34
Subject: [WW] People on public assistance in NYC in crisis
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 11, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
WITH WTC COMPUTER LINKS DESTROYED:
PEOPLE ON PUBLIC ASSISTANCE IN CRISIS
By Heather Cottin
New York
The destruction of the World Trade Center damaged offices
and destroyed files belonging to many agencies that provide
welfare and assistance to thousands of New Yorkers. Not only
did the World Trade Center buildings collapse, but buildings
in the lower part of Manhattan that housed the offices,
computers, and records of hundreds of thousands of people
dependent on social services were damaged and closed.
The debris from the buildings' collapse made reentering or
reopening the Welfare Department, the Legal Aid Society and
Social Security offices impossible. Police cordoned the area
off as a crime scene, so computer records and paper records
of the recipients of assistance from those agencies remain
off limits, according to an article in the Sept. 28 New York
Times.
The result has been chaos. However, the administrators of
these agencies, tied to the Pataki administration of New
York State in the case of welfare, and the Bush
administration in connection with Social Security, have
denied that the problems are grave.
The commissioner of New York State's Office of Temporary and
Disability Assistance, Brian Wing, assured the New York
Times that people weren't "falling through the cracks." But
Wing has no real program for these people.
Wing is in charge of New York State's welfare program. He is
an appointee of Gov. George Pataki. From 1995 to 1998 Wing
carried out Pataki's policies so effectively that he dropped
508,247 people from New York State's welfare rolls.
That same period saw an increase in hunger and homelessness
in New York. Wing was proud of his role, which has forced
more than 50,000 families into workfare. In many cases, they
now depend on money from redeeming cans and bottles.
MEDICAID, WELFARE, PUBLIC HOUSING, LEGAL AID ALL AFFECTED
Medicaid benefits have become unavailable as a result of the
agency closings. "I'm really in dire straits," said one
Medicaid recipient who could not get his card reactivated.
Medicaid recipients whose lives depend upon prescription
drugs are in crisis.
Beatrice Disman, the regional commissioner of the Social
Security Administration, assured the New York Times that New
York State and her administration have "put emergency
procedures into effect." But the files for 15,000 people who
applied for disability benefits, many of whom have been
waiting for years, are lost. Official reassurances from the
Social Security Administration are dubious.
The Legal Aid Society has lost access to the names of its
clients. Its offices are part of the "crime scene" in lower
Manhattan and thus thousands of its clients have no way of
reaching their lawyers. New York City has no public
defender's office, so the Legal Aid Society is the only way
poor people have of getting legal help.
The building that housed the Legal Aid Society also was home
to the New York Housing Authority, so applicants for public
housing have to wait even longer for a place to live.
After the disaster, Mayor Rudy Giuliani didn't make speeches
about the right of poor people to homes, legal assistance,
disability payments or welfare. He just asked to be mayor
for a while longer because he had such concern for the
people of New York.
But nothing has been done about the destruction of social
services and aid to the poor and disabled people in the New
York metropolitan area. Because of the destruction of the
computers in the area near the trade center, welfare offices
in Nassau, Suffolk, Queens, Staten Island, Brooklyn,
Westchester and Putnam counties have lost files and vital
data. None of those counties has been able to provide
benefits to the families who depend upon their assistance.
"Our connection to the New York State system is down," said
one official, "and no one can tell us when we'll be up
again."
Some $50 billion are pouring out of Washington, headed for
the corporate offices of the airlines, the banks and the
12,000 corporations that were located in the World Trade
Center. The Bush administration has set up a breadline for
businesses affected by the destruction of the Twin Towers.
But as to the plight of the poor and working people whose
benefits have been obliterated, New York and federal
officials have offered nothing but lies and excuses.
- 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
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (WW)
Date: keskiviikko 10. lokakuu 2001 14:34
Subject: [WW] SOA Watch to protest terrorist training
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 11, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
NOV. 16-18 AT FORT BENNING, GA.:
SOA WATCH TO PROTEST TERRORIST TRAINING
By Heather Cottin
Although the School of the Americas (SOA) has been renamed
the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation,
its role remains the same. The U.S. Army created this school
to train terrorists.
This year, as it has done annually since 1990, School of the
Americas Watch will demonstrate at Fort Benning, Ga., to
close this "School for Assassins." Eric Le Compte, SOA
Watch's outreach director, says the protests will take place
Nov. 16 to 18.
Since 1946, when it was located in Panama, the institute has
been training terrorists who have tortured and murdered
Latin Americans.
Graduates of this school for assassins have led the armies
and death squads of Latin America, and through them U.S.
corporations have dominated the region. This military
institute, now located in Columbus, Ga., has helped make
Latin America "safe" for U.S. imperialism.
"In light of September 11, this year's demonstration will be
significant," Le Compte says. "The mayor of Columbus, Bobby
Peters, has been taking orders from U.S. Army General James
Le Moyne, who runs the School for Assassins. The general and
Mayor Peters have decided we should be denied a permit to
demonstrate at the school, although we have been conducting
this protest at the same location for 11 years."
Le Compte pointed out the irony of this decision at this
time. "Here they have a school for terrorists right in our
own backyard. And here we are calling for its closing." Yet
the military and the local authorities are trying to forbid
the protesters from legally assembling in front of the
school, which is at Fort Benning.
"In light of the terrorist attacks on September 11, we
believe it is imperative that thousands descend upon Georgia
and demand the closing of this school for terrorists that
the United States government is funding and running!
"We will organize and, if necessary, have an alternate site
in Columbus, if the general and the mayor have their way. We
will stand vigil and conduct civil disobedience on November
16 to 18," Le Compte said. "The graduates of this institute
have been responsible for the torture and murder of
thousands of Latin American and Caribbean women and men."
SOA Watch was founded by Father Roy Bourgeois and others
associated with Catholic orders like the Maryknolls, which
supported "liberation theology" in Latin America. They know
first-hand the double-dealing of the U.S. government, which
not only supported but actually created death-squad regimes
that massacred peasants and their supporters, including a
considerable number of religious workers.
"It is important," Le Compte said, "especially now, to stand
up for our civil liberties." Le Compte participated in the
Sept. 29 International ANSWER protest against war and racism
in Washington, D.C. He noted that the S29 march, which
originally had been called at the White House to protest
President Bush's repressive program, had to change its
location, but that the message and power of the
demonstration were not muted.
As the U.S. government makes a show of "hunting down
terrorists," its Army institute trains assassins and
torturers who conduct official state terrorism in the
interests of U.S. corporations. Le Compte agreed that this
year the number of opponents to the SOA may grow, as U.S.
hypocrisy about terrorism becomes clearer.
- 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
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
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