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The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 3 March 2000
Vol. 4, Number 19 (#394)
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CONTENTS
Defense Campaigns And Prisoner Support: SEIU Local 1877, "Yahoo! Censors
Workers' Voices, Abruptily Ends Virtual Leafletting Campaign, 22 Feb 00
Movie Review: Freedom Song
Real Political Correctness: Religious Liberty Protection Act of 2000, S.
2081
What's Worth Checking: 15 stories
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DEFENSE CAMPAIGNS AND PRISONER SUPPORT:
Yahoo! Censors Workers' Voices, Abruptly Ends Virtual LA Airport Security
Workers Rally at Yahoo! Headquarters to Protest Cancellation of
Internet Ad Campaign Leafleting Campaign
SEIU Local 1877
22 Feb 00
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Yahoo!, one of the leading Web portals, has cancelled
an advertising campaign which sought to bring a message, via the Internet,
from passenger service workers attempting to form a union at Los Angeles
International Airport (LAX). With the help of the Respect at LAX campaign,
passenger service workers at the airport employed by Argenbright Security,
an AHL Services, Inc. company, were using virtual leaflets (banner
advertisements) strategically placed on Yahoo! to publicize their labor
dispute and a connecting Web site, www.un-fulfilled.com.
The Campaign began distribution of the virtual leaflets in mid-January,
but by early February, they were informed that the advertisements were
being dropped because they ran counter to Yahoo's policy in this area.
However, Yahoo! reviewed the banner ad content prior to commencement of the
campaign.
The virtual leaflets were presented to Web users who sought information on
AHL Services, or their e-commerce subsidiary, Gage Marketing, via the
Yahoo! Web site. If users clicked through on the leaflets, they were then
connected to the un-fulfilled.com Web site.
The cancellation came just days after Administrative Law Judge James L.
Rose ruled that Argenbright was guilty of committing dozens of violations
of federal labor laws against these employees. The violations include 40
suspensions and final warnings stemming from a legal, protected strike by
the employees in April, 1999. They also include the disciplining of another
union activist and threats, both written and verbal, against the
Argenbright employees.
The Campaign decided to use this inventive approach since Argenbright
Security had sufficiently silenced their employees, using both legal and
non- legal measures to keep them from forming a union.
According to SEIU Local 1877 President, Mike Garcia, "AHL has used illegal
threats and intimidation to silence these workers and Yahoo!'s decision to
pull the ad is an attempt to silence them once again. AHL customers who
use Yahoo! have the right to know that AHL is a law-breaker," he said.
"While Yahoo! claims to support Internet free-speech, their decision to
cancel the ad demonstrates their willingness to use censorship to prevent
the public from learning that AHL has been convicted of breaking federal
labor laws."
Yahoo!'s decision to censor the ads runs contrary to positions that Yahoo!
executives have taken in the past on free-speech issues. According to
Chief Yahoo! Jerry Yang, "We (Yahoo!) try to be very inclusive of
everybody's comments and everybody's opinions even if those opinions are
not very favorable." (The Daily Yomiuri, March 12, 1996)
Moreover, the company's general counsel, John Place, recently said in an
interview, "To me, the most exciting thing about the Internet is a
democratization ... everyone has a voice. It's the ultimate function of a
participatory democracy." (The National Law Journal, December 20, 1999)
Unfortunately the company's actions speak louder than their words.
Mary Anne Hohenstein, organizing director of SEIU Local 1877 was quite
disheartened by Yahoo's decision. "We believed this was an outlet where we
could freely spread the worker's message," she said. "Argenbright has
willfully violated the law in order to prevent its employees from
exercising their rights to organize a union. The workers should have the
right to share this message with the public and Argenbright's customers.
Yahoo was wrong in unilaterally ending our contract to do so."
Respect at LAX is one of the largest joint organizing campaigns in
country, bringing together two of the fastest growing unions, the Service
Employees International Union and the Hotel Employees and Restaurant
Employees International Union to organize low-wage workers at Los Angeles
International Airport.
Contact: Robert Masciola, 202-898-3346; Eddie Iny, 310-330-8500, ext. 302,
or cell: 310-990-0305, both of Service Employees International Union
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MOVIE REVIEW: Freedom Song
Turner Network Television (press release)
Danny Glover heads ensemble cast of the TNT Original film:
FREEDOM SONG
Danny Glover stars in and executive-produces FREEDOM SONG, a powerful new
Turner Network Television (TNT) original film written and directed by Phil
Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams), which will premiere on Turner Network
Television (TNT) on Sunday, February 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Vondie Curtis
Hall (Chicago Hope), Vicellous Reon Shannon (The Hurricane), Loretta Devine
(Waiting to Exhale) and Glynn Turman (How Stella Got Her Groove Back) also
star in the 2-1/2 hour film, which tells the compelling story of the impact
of the Civil Rights Movement on a small Mississippi town.
Robinson and Stanley Weiser wrote the script. Sean Daniel (The Mummy),
Robinson, Glover and Carolyn McDonald (TNT's Buffalo Soldiers) serve as
executive producers; Amanda DiGiulio Richmond is the producer. FREEDOM SONG
is an Alphaville/Carrie production.
FREEDOM SONG is set in the small town of Quinlan, Mississippi, in 1961. The
Civil Rights Movement is in full force, making its way through the cities,
towns and rural communities of the deep South. The story is told through
the eyes of Shannon's character, an African-American teenager inspired by
the arrival of an organizer from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC). The young man joins the crusade to desegregate Quinlan,
even though his involvement threatens to destroy his relationship with his
father (Glover).
SNCC trains Owen and a group of his school friends to lead peaceful
protests against segregation. The protests include sit-ins at public
buildings, such as libraries, bus stations and businesses. They are also
taught to help African- Americans register to vote -- an act that typically
is met with brutal resistance by the forces of segregation. In chronicling
the effect of the movement on the volunteers, their families, and their
community, FREEDOM SONG places heroism squarely on the shoulders of the
local people -- the unsung volunteers who risked their lives to affect
change at the grassroots level.
Phil Robinson: "We chose to focus on a small town because we thought if we
tried to tell the larger story of the Civil Rights Movement, we could only
scratch the surface of such a broad canvas. Instead, we decided to pick the
smallest possible corner and try to get deeper into the people's lives.
This one brief period in Quinlan had successes, failures, beatings,
jailings and a murder. It was an extraordinary microcosm of the Civil
Rights Movement."
Robinson crafted the script from hundreds of first-hand accounts by former
members of SNCC. Civil rights veterans such as Bob Moses, former SNCC
chairman Chuck McDew, Dave Dennis, Bob Zellner and historian Dr. Vincent
Harding served as consultants on FREEDOM SONG. The teenaged children of
McDew and Dennis played extras in one scene, in which they were given the
unique opportunity to walk a day in their fathers' shoes.
Phil Robinson: "When you talk to people who were on the front lines of the
Civil Rights Movement, it's stunning how often they point to "the elders" -
- the men and women who never marched, or sat-in, or rode Freedom busses --
as the great sources of strength and inspiration and wisdom that fueled
the movement. Together with the energy of the young students, many of whose
names have never been recorded by history, they were true American heroes,
and we felt their story had never adequately been told on film. Their
courage and accomplishment has inspired freedom movements all over the
world -- from South African to Tienanmen Square."
FREEDOM SONG's innovative score is by noted gospel group Sweet Honey in the
Rock (founded by SNCC veteran Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon) and Academy
Awardr-winning composer James Horner (Titanic). This marks Horner and
Robinson's third collaboration, following Field of Dreams and Sneakers.
Seminal pop singer/songwriter Carole King wrote and performs the end title
song "Song Of Freedom" with Sweet Honey In The Rock. Phil Alden Robinson
and Sean Daniel are Excutive album producers. The soundtrack was released
by Sony Classical on February 15.
AIRDATES
Premiere:
Sunday, February 27 at 7 PM (ET/PT)
Encores:
Sunday, February 27 at 9:30 PM (ET/PT)
Sunday, February 27 at 12 Midnight (ET/PT)
Thursday, March 2 at 8:00 PM (ET/PT)
Saturday, March 4 at 10:30 PM (ET/PT)
Sunday, March 5 at 1:00 PM (ET/PT)
Wednesday, March 8 at 10:00 PM (ET/PT)
Saturday, March 11 at 1:00 PM (ET/PT)
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REAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS:
It's from the rightwing authoritarians and always has been
Senator Hatch Introduces Religious Liberty Protection Act -- Version 2000
AA News (American Atheists)
24 Feb 00
It's baaack...
After months of delay and rumors that it was a dead issue, Sen. Orrin
Hatch (R-Utah) yesterday introduced the Religious Liberty Protection Act of
2000, S. 2081. Like its mirror version passed last year by the House of
Representatives, the RLPA would require that governments employ a
"compelling interest/least restrictive means" test when dealing with faith-
based groups and practices.
Getting the legislation to the Senate, though, has taxed even many of the
bill's former supporters.
* RLPA is based on the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). That
measure was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in the historic BOERNE
v. FLORES decision of 1997. The 6-3 ruling declared that RFRA was an
unconstitutional extension of congressional authority, and sought to exempt
religious groups from "generally applicable," neutral civil laws.
Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that the RFRA provided religious groups
with a legal instrument that "no atheist" could obtain, and thus violated
the separation of church and state.
* Undeterred, supporters of RFRA simply recast the legislation and
introduced it as the federal Religious Liberty Protection Act.
Mini-RFRAs have also been introduced in over a dozen states.
* The House approved a version of RLPA on July 15, 1999. Although the
legislation was supported by a wide range of liberal and conservative
religious groups as well as several political advocacy organizations,
support for the measure has steadily eroded. At issue: concerns that RLPA
could be used by religious groups to nullify civil rights laws, and use the
measure to discriminate against people of color, women, gays or other
groups.
* Last September, key organizations began to abandon the Coalition for the
Free Exercise of Religion, which had been the premier group supporting RLPA
on capitol hill and in state legislatures. Americans United for the
Separation of Church and State withdrew, as did the American Civil
Liberties Union. This came as an anti-RLPA front began to coalesce,
bringing together atheists, neighborhood preservationists, health care
professionals, civil libertarians, child welfare advocates and others.
Even some conservative groups like the Home School Legal Defense Fund
became skeptical of RLPA's use of federal authority.
* After three months of maneuvering, what remains of the pro-RLPA coalition
now have a bill for introduction in the Senate. In recent weeks, RLPA
boosters have worked behind the scenes in hopes of wooing back some civil
rights groups by offering to possibly limit provisions of the legislation.
That has not worked. Even moderate Republicans who might have supported
the measure last year are now under pressure to vote against RLPA, should
it manage to come up for a floor vote.
At least one Christian legal group tried to strike a compromise with Sen.
Edward Kennedy, who worries that RLPA would limit enforcement of laws
against child abuse.
* Senate Bill 2081 appeared on the THOMAS web site this morning, but
already there is finger-pointing between two big boosters of the
legislation, Sen. Hatch and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.)
Lott has made numerous promises over the past nine months that he would
fast track the RLPA, or at least bring it to the Senate floor. Earlier
this week, there were even reports that Lott would invoke cloture on the
measure, which was then listed as the House version, H.R. 1691. Lott and
Hatch engineered a series of "stealth" hearings on RLPA last year, but that
incarnation of the act never made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
* So far, no action on RLPA is listed on the Senate calendar. We are told
that Hatch's bill is "at the desk," which means that Mr. Lott can still
fast-track the Religious Liberty Protection Act for a vote.
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WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING
stories via <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story5/>
AP, "Furrow rearraigned on Jewish center shooting indictment," 14 Feb 00,
"A self-avowed white supremacist charged with shooting up a Jewish center
filled with children and killing a postman last summer was arraigned today
on a December indictment which added hate crime allegations to his case.
Prosecutors, however, did not reveal at today's hearing whether they will
seek the death penalty in the case of Buford O. Furrow." <1416.txt>
David Weber and Laura Brown (Boston Herald), "3 pupils face rape charges in
T attack," 1 Feb 00, "Two 15-year-old Boston High School girls were
arraigned yesterday in Boston Juvenile Court on charges including attempted
rape and civil rights violations for allegedly attacking a schoolmate they
thought was a lesbian." <1417.txt>
Eileen McNamarma (Boston Globe), "The many faces of intolerance," 2 Feb 00,
"Ralph Martin was thinking a lot about Alan Keyes this week. No, Suffolk's
liberal, black, Republican district attorney was not in New Hampshire
stumping for the conservative, black, Republican presidential aspirant. He
was in the Suffolk Courthouse, prosecuting three teenage girls for a hate
crime for which, he says, men like Keyes and fellow presidential contender
Gary Bauer bear some measure of social responsibility. 'We expect to hear
hate-mongering in taverns or in the streets. We are quick to denounce
intolerance in the ignorant and uneducated, but we don't do such a good job
when the person is wearing a suit,' says the district attorney." <1418.txt>
AP, "Duke's white-rights group accused of trademark infringement," 19 Feb
00, "No Fear Inc., the maker of apparel for mountain bikers and other
extreme sports enthusiasts, has filed suit alleging former Ku Klux Klan
leader David Duke infringed on the company's trademark by calling his new
white-rights group NOFEAR. The company holds trademark rights to "No Fear,"
said Marty Moates, vice president of Carlsbad, Calif.-based No Fear Inc.
The company filed suit Wednesday in federal district court in Southern
California, demanding that Mr. Duke stop using the name. Last month, Mr.
Duke launched the National Organization for European American Rights, or
NOFEAR. Mr. Duke has said the group's mission is to fight what he says is
widespread discrimination against white people of European descent. Mr.
Duke denied that the group's name violated trademark rights." <1419.txt>
Fredrick J. Johnson (The Capital-Journal), "Sayings on cars get city
scrutiny," 16 Feb 00, "City employees displaying racist or sexist messages
on their vehicles will have to remove the stickers or park outside city
work sites and employee parking lots. Vehicles displaying racially
insensitive emblems and sexually explicit flags, banners, bumper stickers
and insignia will be prohibited at work sites and employee parking lots
under an administrative policy that goes into effect Friday. Topeka chief
administrative officer John Arnold said Tuesday that the policy was
designed to avoid creation of a hostile work environment." <1420.txt>
Henry McDonald ([London] Observer), "Anglican cleric and red republican
forge alliance to begin dialogue between paramilitary foes and 'end the
rule of the gun-almighty'," 20 Feb 00, "It is a most unlikely alliance in
the cause of peace: a former member of the Irish National Liberation Army
and a Church of England vicar are working together to help ease tensions
between terrorist groups in Ireland. The Rev David Armstrong, a vicar in
the city of Cambridge, wears the dog collar of the Anglican Communion,
while Terry Harkin, the spokesman for the INLA's political wing in Britain,
the Irish Republican Socialist Party, sports a badge on his lapel with a
red star, clenched fist and a Kalashnikov rifle. Armstrong has invited
Harkin to address his congregation about the INLA's proposed non-aggression
pact with its loyalist enemies. The last time his parishioners heard of
the INLA was probably over 20 years ago, when the terror group murdered
Margaret Thatcher's close aide, Airey Neave, in the House of Commons car
park." <1421.txt>
via Hate Crimes discussion list, "Religious Right Child Molester [intro to
AP article]," 10 Feb 00, "What the article doesn't say is that the molester
is a religious right leader in Indiana, forced the girl into committing
oral sex acts for over a year (not just "molesting her"), and was himself a
key leader in the religious right's attempt to ban gay adoption in Indiana.
This article is one of the best examples out there of why the religious
right's opposition to gay adoption is not just wrong, it's sometimes even
harmful. I highly recommend advocacy-oriented folks keep this article
handy, and any time the religious right raises the 'gays are pedophiles'
argument, pull this article out and quote it." <1422.txt>
Linda Wheeler (The Washington Post), "A Slave's All-but-Forgotten Run for
Freedom," 17 Feb 00, "Robert Smalls was above all a trusted slave, a man
who could be counted on to be loyal to his owners and to the cause of the
Confederate States of America. As the pilot of a supply ship, he regularly
made deliveries to fortifications along the South Carolina coast under
supervision of several white naval officers. On the night of May 12, 1862,
when the officers had left the ship in Smalls's care, he and the slave crew
maneuvered the Planter through the Charleston harbor to pick up family
members, then sailed past the walls of the well-fortified Fort Sumter and
out into the open sea, where federal forces were maintaining a blockade.
Smalls gave a valuable ship to the Union and delivered himself and eight
other men, five women and three children out of slavery. The forgotten
story of his heroic act was revived Thursday with a photo exhibit at the
U.S. Naval Memorial Foundation and the Navy Heritage Center...." <1423.txt>
Kevin G. Hall (Jose Mercury News), "Brutal beating shocks Brazilians:
Alleged hate crime by skinheads provokes a new look at attitudes toward
sexual minorities," 27 Feb 00, "Edson Neris da Silva did not set out to
become a Brazilian martyr for gay rights or an international reminder about
the dangers of skinheads and other hate groups. But the savage slaying of
the quiet dog trainer, who allegedly was beaten with brass knuckles and
chains by 18 skinheads and left to die...." <1424.txt>
Brian Becker and Sarah Sloan (International Action Center), "Return Of the
Pirates," 8 Feb 00, "Just imagine this scenario fifteen years ago: Masked
U.S. commandos, armed with machine guns, descending down rope ladders from
attack helicopters and seizing control of a Soviet vessel on the high seas.
Such a scene was the thing for movie buffs, James Bond techno-spy flicks
and Tom Clancy novels. Fifteen years ago, the Pentagon would be well aware
that boarding and seizing a Soviet vessel on the high seas could lead to a
major world confrontation. ... But the Soviet Union has now collapsed. ...
On Wednesday, February 2, U.S. SEAL commandos seized control of a Russian
oil tanker in the Persian/Arabian Gulf." <1425.txt>
Ben Mahony (U. of Lethbridge), "Introduction to 'Human rights Abuse in
Canada Amoung Native People'," 8 Feb 00, "I write this from the Native
American Studies Department at the University of Lethbridge. Many people,
including Dr. Tony Hall and I, have done research on the mistreatment of
Native protesters at the Gustafsen Lake standoff in central BC, Canada in
1995. Landmines, a media smear campaign, the use of armoured personnel
carriers and the shooting of unarmed protesters in an agree upon 'no-shoot-
zone' were elements of the RCMP and military action at Gustafsen Lake."
<1426.txt>
Anthony J. Hall -- Department of Native American Studies (Vancouver Sun),
"Don't Bury the Tragedy At Gustafsen," 21 Jan 00, "In 1995 a modest Indian
sun dance ceremony at Gustafsen Lake burst into an angry dispute over
contested title to a small patch of ranch land. This Native stand was met
by the most severe police and military crackdown in BC’s history. The
little band of dissidents justified their defiant stand by invoking
provisions of the country’s constitution, which they maintained confirmed
the status of their sacred sun dance grounds as unceded Indian territory.
Very quickly police moved to block reporters from any direct contact with
the so-called "Indian renegades". Once the protestors were prevented from
telling their side of the story, the RCMP moved quickly to characterize
them and their controversial lawyer, Bruce Clark, as 'criminals and
terrorists'." <1427.txt>
Russ Bynum (AP), "Victims ask lawmakers to crack down on hate crimes," 23
Feb 00, Several hours after Palm Sunday services ended at Red Oak United
Methodist Church, parishioners found themselves watching from the cemetery
outside as the church was consumed by fire set by arsonists. ... Pace says
his congregation was victimized by a hate crime. And he wasn't alone
Tuesday in asking the House Judiciary Committee to approve stiffer
penalties for crimes motivated by race, religion, gender or sexual
orientation. Committee members also heard from a rabbi whose synagogue was
vandalized and a gay man who was assaulted with a knife at his throat. ...
Fort's bill passed the Senate by just two votes earlier this month. The
House committee plans to vote Thursday on whether to pass it on to the full
House. The bill allows judges to impose additional fines of up to $15,000
and extra jail time of up to five years in cases where they determine the
victims were chosen because of race, color, religion, national origin,
ancestry, ethnicity, gender, disability or sexual orientation." <1428.txt>
AP, "White Supremacist Fliers Hit Murray," 29 Feb 00, "For the second time
this month, fliers from a white supremacist group have turned up on
doorsteps in the suburbs of Salt Lake City. The printed leaflets from the
National Alliance, based in Hillsboro, Va., turned up in Murray on Sunday
morning. The fliers made disparaging remarks about ethnic minorities and
said that 'third-world immigrants are destroying our nation'." <1429.txt>
The [North Carolina] State (no author), "Lumbees want night of
confrontation with KKK remembered," 28 Feb 00, "Forty-two years ago,
several hundred Lumbee Indians drove off a group of Klansmen after a cross
burning. Many regard the episode as a turning point in Lumbees' civil
rights movement here. But some worry the milestone event may someday be
forgotten because no signs mark the spot and no events are held to
commemorate it. Members of the Ku Klux Klan had come to the county to rail
against 'race-mixing.' Klansmen had burned crosses in Lumberton and St.
Pauls several days before. The Klan distributed fliers advertising the
demonstration at Hayes Pond, now Mill Pond. But several Lumbee leaders
decided that they would not allow the Klansmen into the community. They
organized a defense, and the people followed carrying shotguns and rifles."
<1430.txt>
* * * * *
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.
__________________________________________________________________________
FASCISM:
We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
(No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)
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