WW News Service Digest #333
1) Minnesota strike: Standing up to a wartime crisis
by WW
2) Letter-writing campaign for Mumia
by WW
3) It's all hype: Bush has no plan for laid-off workers
by WW
4) SOA protesters describe U.S. training of assassins
by WW
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (WW)
Date: maanantai 15. lokakuu 2001 03:44
Subject: [WW] Minnesota strike: Standing up to a wartime crisis
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 18, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
MINNESOTA STRIKE: STANDING UP TO A WARTIME CRISIS
--LESSONS FOR THE LABOR MOVEMENT
By Milt Neidenberg
They had no choice. On Oct. 1, a week before Pres. George W.
Bush ordered a full-scale war against the people of
Afghanistan, more than 28,000 Minnesota state employees
rejected the state's offer and walked off their jobs. With
more than half the state workers on strike, government
services shut down.
Even as the picket lines were being set up in St. Paul,
Duluth and around the state, even before the Pentagon
bombing had started, Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura and every
business leader, editorial writer, labor academic and anti-
union hack around the state began a coordinated witch hunt.
Screaming "unpatriotic," they condemned the strikers for
walking out during a national wartime crisis.
In no time, Governor Ventura ordered nearly 1,000 National
Guard members to scab in 120 state-run hospital care
centers, replacing social workers, psychologists, nurses'
aides, food workers and janitors. Sending in these troops
offers no comfort to those who need expert and professional
care.
Once the bombing of Afghanistan began, these attacks from on
high, draped in patriotic fervor, were ratcheted up against
the Minnesota unions and their members. As of this writing,
both parties have agreed to begin mediation talks on Oct.
11.
The workers had been without a contract since June. They
agreed to a wage freeze in 1993 and have been struggling to
catch up ever since. For eight years, they have settled for
contracts that offered wages less than the inflation rate,
while at the same time the Minnesota state government handed
over huge surpluses to the wealthiest in tax rebates.
Now the workers are rightfully demanding decent compensation
in wages and benefits for the sacrifices they made during
those years. They have reached the breaking point.
The two unions involved are the Minnesota Association of
Professional Employees, representing about 10,500 members,
and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, representing about 19,000. These unions rejected
a contract that once again offered wages less than the
inflation rate and demanded givebacks in their health plans.
AFSCME, representing the lower-paid work force, was offered
a one-time 3-percent raise over two years. The professional
association was offered 4 percent over the same period.
Will the mediation efforts provide the union with a measure
of economic justice?
FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED
History has provided lessons of what the labor movement must
be prepared for during wartime.
An example of this was found in two recent articles, written
on Oct. 2 and Oct. 5 by New York Times labor reporter Steven
Greenhouse. He referred to a study by a professor of labor
relations at the University of Illinois on how Presidents
Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower attacked every strike as
unpatriotic during the McCarthyite Cold War witch-hunts in
the U.S. after World War II and the Korean War.
Why is Greenhouse going back half a century? He is conveying
a message to the AFL-CIO from a large section of Corporate
America meant to discourage labor struggles in this wartime
period. Workers must make the sacrifices, they say, not the
rich.
Greenhouse doesn't mention how many rank-and-file protests,
strikes and other forms of job actions took place during
those decades. But he does know full well that the top labor
officials at that time buckled under the pressure of the
McCarthy witch-hunts and the Korean War.
Those serious setbacks and losses suffered by the labor
movement then are still felt to this day. Today the national
commentators, the big-business media, the anti-union, right-
wing hacks and academic puppets want to turn back the clock
to that infamous period.
IT'S A CLASS WAR
The class war waged by the owners of banking and industry
against the workers and oppressed began escalating here long
before the first bombs rained down on Afghanistan.
A biennial report from the Economic Policy Institute issued
in 1999 cited that the "poorest 20 percent of the nation's
working families experienced a drop in their share of the
nation's total household income."
This report was issued during a boom period, before the
current recession. Now these workers face an alarming rate
of unemployment without having accumulated any savings.
Personal bankruptcies and debt are at an all-time high.
What a contrast to the earnings of the bosses. The AFL-CIO
Executive Pay Watch quotes a Business Week annual survey
showing the average CEO of a major corporation made $12.4
million in 1999--that's 475 times more than an average blue-
collar worker.
The gap between rich and poor has widened even more
dramatically since then. J.P. Morgan/Chase, the global
banking giant, oversees $300 billion in assets belonging to
60,000 families worldwide, each with a net worth of $30
million or more. (New York Times, Oct. 7)
But now that the war against Afghan istan has actually
begun, the Bush administration and the Democratic me-too-ers
are setting a campaign in motion that will intensify this
class warfare. It is nothing more than a terror attack and
declaration of war against the multinational working class--
organized and unorganized--and the millions who are now
unemployed and poor.
The Bush administration hopes that its bombing of
Afghanistan and patriotic frenzy will divert the workers and
oppressed here from the hardships they face in the class
war.
Can anyone deny that the U.S. military attack is also part
of their global war strategy to control property and wealth
abroad--wealth built upon the misery, hunger, poverty and
illness of billions of oppressed peoples of many
nationalities and religions?
President Bush, Congress, and corporate and banking tycoons
want to pacify the unions and their members so that they'll
accept the layoffs, unemployment and cutbacks--such as in
Social Security insurance and other benefits--as a result of
the war effort. In contrast, Wall Street will be receiving
$60-75 billion that Bush had added to the fiscal 2002
budget. This massive giveaway to the corporations and banks,
as well as the calls for sacrifices by workers, must be the
targets of struggle by the labor movement.
The AFL-CIO, if it is to survive and grow, must also develop
a strategy of resistance and fightback to the government-
orchestrated war frenzy. Overcoming the call for sacrifices
in the name of patriotism and war will be a monumental task.
The AFL-CIO has reached a crossroads imposed upon it by
these recent events. It must take a position independent
from its traditional political "allies" in Washington.
There is a rising movement of anti-war, anti-racist and anti-
globalization forces. It is a young movement that has shown
remarkable courage in recent protests and rallies. They have
taken the road to struggle, as shown by the tens of
thousands who protested in Washington, San Francisco,
Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities in the U.S. only a
week before the Pentagon bombing of Afghanistan.
It is necessary that the labor movement take this road and
join them.
As the courageous strike of more than 28,000 Minnesota state
workers led by AFSCME and the Association of Professional
Employees enters mediation, the workers are determined to
get economic and social justice in spite of the war frenzy.
This is a splendid and heroic example for the labor movement
to emulate.
- 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:
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From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (WW)
Date: maanantai 15. lokakuu 2001 03:44
Subject: [WW] Letter-writing campaign for Mumia
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 18, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
LETTER-WRITING CAMPAIGN FOR MUMIA
The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-
Jamal has initiated a letter-writing campaign to Judge
Pamela Dembe, who is to decide soon whether or not Abu-Jamal
will get an evidentiary hearing.
The group points out that in 1982, during his first so-
called trial, Abu-Jamal was excluded from the courtroom for
almost half the proceedings by Judge Albert Sabo. On Aug. 17
of this year Mumia was banned from the courtroom again.
Currently Judge Dembe is due to decide if she will set
another court date for more hearings in Abu-Jamal's case.
ICFFMAJ is urging people to
"Contact Judge Dembe and demand that she do the right
thing. Contact Philadelphia Mayor John Street and demand an
independent investigation.
"We demand:
1) That the confession of Arnold
Beverly stating that he, not Mumia Abu-Jamal, killed police
officer Daniel Faulkner in 1982 be heard by the state
courts.
2) That an evidentiary hearing be held in the Pennsylvania
state court to consider all the evidence pointing to Abu-
Jamal's innocence.
3) That Mumia Abu-Jamal be present at this hearing and at
all legal proceedings in his case.
4) That Mumia Abu-Jamal be
released because of innocence."
Judge Pamela Dembe's office is at Criminal Justice Center,
Room 1417, 1301 Filbert St., Philadelphia, PA 19107, phone
(215) 683-7148, fax (215) 683-7150.
Mayor John Street is at Room 215, City Hall, Philadelphia,
PA 19107, phone (215) 686-3000,
fax (215) 686-2170.
- 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: maanantai 15. lokakuu 2001 03:45
Subject: [WW] It's all hype: Bush has no plan for laid-off workers
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 18, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
IT'S ALL HYPE: BUSH HAS NO PLAN FOR LAID-OFF WORKERS
By Gary Wilson
Has President George W. Bush flip-flopped from economic
reactionary to economic liberal? Has he become a proponent
of government spending in order to end the economic
recession?
Following the attack on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon, Bush began outlining a new economic policy that
included rebuilding New York and increasing "security" with
more funds for the military.
There was also a bailout for the airline companies, but that
was said to be necessary because so much was lost in the
airline industry in the weeks after the attack.
The amount of money being projected for these new emergency
programs was around $100 billion, give or take a few billion
depending on which newspaper account you read. Everyone was
supposed to get behind the president and cheer for this new
plan.
There were a few details, however, that muted the cheers.
Some questions could be heard.
Labor unionists showed up on Capitol Hill to question
Congress. Why were the airline bosses being bailed out,
while more than 140,000 workers were being laid off by those
same bosses? And what about the workers suffering from the
failing economy because of a recession that began before the
attack and has gotten worse since?
So Bush started talking about extending unemployment
benefits. For a while the media was full of pictures of Bush
shaking hands with workers, going out to meet real people,
and so on. He suddenly became a regular guy who wasn't born
with a silver spoon in his mouth and he was going to use
government spending to stimulate the economy.
Whew. That was a big change.
The European press was universally amazed. The Financial
Times of London wrote about the "conversion of Mr. Bush and
his Republican Party to the cause of fiscal stimulus."
That's the economists' term for liberal social spending
programs.
LITTLE BEHIND THE HYPE
The U.S. press was full of reports that could have been
written by public relations specialists about how the whole
country was coming together, and the sure sign of it was
President Bush's plan to extend unemployment benefits and
other measures using government spending to stimulate the
economy and pull it out of a recession.
Oh yes, and all this while launching a war on Afghanistan.
But, according to the Web site of the AFL-CIO, extended
benefits aren't going to get to most of the people who need
them. Last year, only 39 percent of those unemployed
received any benefits at all because the majority were low-
paid, often part-time or contract workers not covered by
unemployment insurance. In this economic slowdown many
restaurant and hotel workers are being laid off, and they
fit right into this category, along with nearly two-thirds
of the workforce.
Furthermore, Bush's plan requires that a state's
unemployment level must have risen by 30 percent since Sept.
11 to qualify for the extended benefits. This high "trigger"
means that very few states will qualify unless the recession
deepens into a disastrous depression, and that could take a
while, leaving those laid off right now with no extended
benefits.
And undocumented workers, a significant segment of the U.S.
workforce, receive no benefits of any kind if they lose
their jobs. That won't change under anything being proposed
by Bush or the Democrats.
What about the war? Maybe Bush and the Republicans, like
most of the Democrats, think that a war will pull the
economy out of the capitalist recession.
The problem is, they will quickly find it difficult to sell
the "necessary war sacrifices." There might be more than
just a few questions asked about who is doing the
sacrificing and for what.
So Bush started emphasizing his "stimulus" plans. He even
reworded a new tax proposal, a total of $75 billion in cuts
for the wealthy and businesses, and called it an "anti-
recession relief" plan.
Paul Krugman, an economics columnist for the New York Times,
noted on Oct. 7 that Bush's plan to stimulate the economy
seems to be almost all tax cuts. A "key administration
proposal is an acceleration of tax cuts for higher income
brackets," Krugman writes. The tax cuts won't stimulate the
economy much, if at all, Krugman continues, but the real
reason they are being accelerated now is because there is a
"growing likelihood that part of the tax cut will eventually
be rescinded." In other words, grab the tax cuts for the
rich now before anyone can ask who is going to pay for
Bush's new spending plans.
ROBBING PENSIONS, HEALTH FUNDS TO PAY FOR WAR
That's because the big-ticket items in Bush's stimulus
package, such as doubling the increase in military spending,
have to be paid for somehow. Right now, the only place to
get those funds are from the Social Security and Medicare
funds. These are the funds that candidate Bush used to say
were in a locked box that would never be touched.
But the locked box is being broken into and the funds
stolen.
According to Laura Tyson, the former chief economic adviser
to President Bill Clinton, the big tax cuts being proposed
as well as the spending increases can only be paid for in
one way:
"In the short run, there is only one choice: funds pledged
to Medicare and Social Security will have to be used.
Because of the tax cuts passed last spring, nothing else
remains in the government's coffers." (New York Times, Oct.
8)
So Bush may be making speeches that make it sound like
everyone will get an equal helping hand from the government,
whether you are an airline employee or a Wall Street banker
or an arms merchant. But the reality is that a recession is
coming on strong and the rich are making a grab for what
funds are left in the government's vaults. And while they
are at it, they'll be glad to sell the government whatever
it wants for the war effort, at inflated prices, of course.
- 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: maanantai 15. lokakuu 2001 03:45
Subject: [WW] SOA protesters describe U.S. training of assassins
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Oct. 18, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
EVEN JUDGE IS SHOCKED:
SOA PROTESTERS DESCRIBE U.S TRAINING OF ASSASSINS
By Heather Cottin
The School of the Americas at Fort Benning in Georgia trains
Latin American military personnel on how to torture, kidnap
and assassinate civilians. "It trains terrorists," SOA Watch
protesters said in July 2000 when they were arrested at the
Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.
On Oct. 3, three weeks after the attacks at the World Trade
Center, Municipal Court Judge Felice Stack acquitted five
defendants who had been protesting the existence of the
School of the Americas. Evidence of the activities conducted
at the facility, now renamed the Western Hemisphere
Institute for Security Cooperation, shocked Judge Stack.
The court found Linda Panetta, 35, of Philadelphia; Allison
Styan, 19, of Maryland; Rebecca Johnson, 22, of Maryland;
Laurel Paget-Seekins, 21, of California; and William Brown,
32, of Philadelphia not guilty. They were among 400 arrested
for expressing opposition to the Republican Convention.
During the convention the five had reenacted a massacre
carried out by SOA graduates, presided over by a caricature
of Uncle Sam. After the verdict defendant Paget-Seekins
stated, "We put the SOA on trial today and the verdict shows
that the real crime is the training of soldiers to repress
their own people. We will continue to nonviolently act to
close this school of terror until it is shut down for good."
During its 55-year history, the SOA has trained over 60,000
Latin American soldiers. It continues to train hundreds of
soldiers yearly in combat skills such as commando tactics,
mine warfare, military intelligence and psychological
operations. SOA-trained troops return home to wage war
against their own civilian populations. Hundreds of
thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped,
assassinated, "disappeared," massacred and/or forced into
refugee camps by those trained at the SOA.
Despite repeated objections by prosecutor Josh Van Naarden,
Stack allowed Catholic Bishop Tom Gumbleton from Detroit to
testify at length about allegations that the School of the
Americas was linked to specific killings and massacres in
Central America during the 1980s.
Before rendering her verdict, Stack said that she had never
heard of the School of the Americas until yesterday, but
what she learned was "very enlightening and somewhat
shocking."
Another Municipal Court judge had thrown out the charges
against the defendants, but they were later reinstated by a
Common Pleas Court judge. The state of Pennsylvania, which
has repeatedly indicated its reactionary juridical policies
in its case against Black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, and by
its involvement in the police bombing of the MOVE house in
May of 1985, attempted in vain to prosecute the SOA Watch
protesters.
The Philadelphia Inquirer asked the newly renamed institute
for commentary on the release of the protesters, "A Web site
for the institute says that it replaced the School of the
Americas and that it promotes democratic values and respect
for human rights. The institute did not respond to a request
for comment."
SOA Watch will be demonstrating again this year in Columbus,
Ga., on Nov. 16 to 18. The indignation of many people over
the government's claims to be waging a war against
"terrorism" in the Middle East while actually producing
terrorists--like the counter-revolutionary army the CIA
organized in Afghanistan in the 1980s--is expected to add
fuel to the protest.
- 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)
