the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Feb 16, 2004
Working people all over the country are being hit by a blizzard of higher taxes and fees on the state and local level.
We are paying much more for sewage, water and garbage collection in our homes or through our rent. When we drive a car, we pay more to licence the car, as well as more in taxes for gasoline and more in tolls. When we talk on the phone, we pay higher taxes, especially for cellular phones. If we take a walk in a state park, we pay a higher entry fee, and a much higher fee if we go camping. If we stick a fishing line in a lake, the fishing license is higher. If we need copies of our birth or death certificate or marriage license, we will pay more. And then, for those who smoke or drink, there are the outrageously high excise taxes, that are raised periodically, as if higher government taxes are more acceptable when they are called "sin taxes."
Sometimes these tax increases are hidden, such as when public schools, which are starved for money, try to get parents to pay extra for certain programs–extra-curricular or even academic.
State and local politicians pretend they are not raising taxes. It’s a complete lie. What are all these fees but another tax?
The kinds of taxes and fees they push through are the most regressive, that is, they place the main burden on the working class and poor. A millionaire and an unemployed worker pay the same higher bridge toll, and the same amount of tax on gasoline and the same fee for garbage collection. But these taxes and fees eat up a considerably bigger share of the worker’s income than that of the wealthy.
State and local officials say they have no choice because of cutbacks in federal revenue-sharing programs or unfunded federal mandates. But in fact, the state and local governments are only doing what the federal government does: they are putting their own taxpayer base at the disposal of their own local capitalists. While the federal government uses the military budget to funnel huge amounts of wealth to the military contractors, states and cities use the taxes they collect from us to help underwrite the latest shopping center, multiplex movie theater, factory, corporate headquarters, housing development, sports stadium (complete with luxury corporate skyboxes). State and local governments and school boards pay out huge sums of money to local capitalists to build or repair roads and schools, or to pay for text books, medical services, etc. And the companies make fat profits in the bargain.
Just as the federal government has slashed the taxes for the wealthy by trillions of dollars in the last years, state and local governments did the same thing. In fact, in the 1990s, when state and local governments began to run surpluses, the first thing they did was to drastically cut corporate income taxes, as well as income taxes for people in the upper brackets, making the tax system ever more regressive. They made the working and middle classes, not to speak of the poor, pay the lion’s share of the taxes.
Of course, once the last recession hit, and state and local budgets began to run record-sized deficits, the politicians did not take back the most recent tax cuts for the wealthy nor, for that matter, all their subsidies and grants to the corporations. On the contrary, they proposed enormous cuts in social programs, starting with those that serve the children from working class and poor families, including huge cuts in public education, children’s health care, childcare, child nutrition programs, etc. And they continue to cut funding for the basic infrastructure, so that we are left with sewage and water systems that are often over a century old and are falling apart.
In other words, working people are paying more for a government that provides less and less in basic services, a government that is more and more simply a conduit of workers’ money going into the pockets of the capitalists.
The politicians have been doing this now for so long they think they can keep on doing it forever. Not true. Let workers mobilize, let us pour out into the streets making our demands, and watch these rats scurry back into their holes.
Feb 16, 2004
On February 8, a federal appeals court in California stayed the execution of Kevin Cooper just a few hours before it was scheduled. The court called for a new testing of the blood evidence which was used to convict Cooper of the murder of two adults and two children in 1983. The stay of the execution was finalized when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn the decision.
Everything indicates that Kevin Cooper not only didn’t commit the murders, but was framed by the authorities.
One of the few pieces of evidence that the prosecution used against Cooper were shoe prints at the crime scene, which matched shoes worn by prisoners (Cooper had escaped from a prison in the area shortly before the murders took place). What the prosecutors hid from everyone, however, was the statement of a prison warden that the same type of shoes could be bought by anyone at Sears. This alone should have been enough reason for the trial to be annulled as unfair. But courts rejected Cooper’s appeals.
In fact, there is ample evidence supporting Cooper’s innocence of the murders. One of the victims was found clutching blond hairs (Cooper is black and has black hair). Two white men wearing bloody clothes were seen at a bar near the victims’ house shortly after the murders. The former girlfriend of one of the men said she had seen him coming home that night in bloody coveralls. And the only survivor of the attack, the then eight-year-old Josh Ryen, twice testified that there were three attackers, and that they were white or Hispanic. Josh changed his testimony at the trial and said that he had only seen a shadow–after he had spent a good deal of time with the police, including living at the home of a detective for a while.
In addition, Cooper’s lawyers have obtained a statement by a former police informant, Albert Ruiz, that the murders were "a hit on the wrong family on that hill," and that "they literally dropped the load off on Cooper." Ruiz later backed off some of the statements he made, but a journalist who had covered the case in 1985 testified that Ruiz had told her in 1997 that Cooper didn’t commit the murders and that the police were told to plant evidence against Cooper.
Five of the twelve jurors have said that they wouldn’t have voted to convict Cooper if they had known about all this evidence. But all this didn’t prevent Cooper’s appeals from being rejected–including a clemency request which was turned down by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who claimed that the evidence against Cooper was "overwhelming."
The evidence is overwhelming alright–of his innocence. Last year, blood samples that had been used as evidence against Cooper were found to contain Cooper’s DNA. But Cooper’s defense wants these samples to be tested also for EDTA, a chemical used as a preservative. If significant amounts of EDTA are found in the blood samples, that will show that the blood was indeed put in and around the crime scene by the police. As one of the judges who voted to stay Cooper’s execution said, "Cooper is either guilty as sin or he was framed by the police. There is no middle ground."
The authorities force an innocent man to live on Death Row for 18 years–and they almost execute him–in order to cover a frame-up, perhaps even to cover for the actual murderers.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time. In recent years, dozens of Death Row inmates have been exonerated after their innocence was proven by independent investigators. Many of these people were also shown to have been framed by the authorities. Last year, these findings led the former Governor of Illinois to commute all death sentences in that state.
The protests against, and the publicity about, the case of Kevin Cooper in recent weeks seem to have stopped his execution–for now. But the legal battle to overturn his death sentence and to win his freedom is far from won.
Feb 16, 2004
The Justice Department is demanding that at least six university hospitals in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Ann Arbor, Michigan, turn over all patient medical records involving certain doctors who performed abortions there in the last three years.
This is nothing but retaliation for lawsuits brought by these same doctors, who are fighting the new so-called "Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act," which bars them from performing a medically necessary abortion procedure, intact dilation and curettage.
This procedure is performed only in cases of medical necessity. It is performed late in a pregnancy, a time which the law already makes clear is already reserved only for medically necessary abortions, those attempting to save the life or prevent permanent damage to the health of the woman. It’s performed only when all other alternatives are even more risky.
The new law banning this procedure may well be thrown out–for the same reason all prior versions of it have been: since it gives no allowances for the health or well-being of the woman, it would condemn the women who need this procedure to death or permanent health problems.
So what if the law won’t stand up in court? Ashcroft is using it today to tie doctors up in legal actions, costing them time and money for years to come. He’s betting that more doctors will decide it’s not worth the hassle to perform what is, today, a legal procedure in all 50 states.
Ashcroft is acting in the same way as those who have killed doctors for performing abortions, and those who have harassed doctors and their patients seeking abortions. Just as they have made it exceedingly difficult if not impossible to find a doctor willing to perform ordinary abortions in many parts of the country, this legal action by Ashcroft is an attempt to further intimidate doctors who are ready to perform this difficult and life-saving procedure.
For the sake of political gain, Ashcroft–and the Bush administration–are condemning women to death or permanent health damage.
And they have the gall to stand up and call themselves the guardians of morality!
Feb 16, 2004
For the moment, John Kerry is riding high in the Democratic primaries. Exit polls report that Kerry voters put jobs as their highest priority, along with their disagreement with the war in Iraq.
If things continue as they are, the odds are that in November the contest will be Bush vs. Kerry. What could workers expect from one or the other of these two men?
Workers can judge Bush by direct experience, and the experience is all bad.
But workers have no experience with Kerry–only his record and speeches.
Senator Kerry stood with Bush in preparing public opinion for the invasion and also on the vote to go in. Now he claims he voted for the invasion because he was misled. Tens of millions of ordinary citizens in the U.S. and also around the world were not misled. If Kerry felt under-informed, he could have gone and asked any of those citizens who took to the streets against this war.
If Kerry really were ready to stop this war, at the very least, he would today pledge to bring the troops out of Iraq as soon as he took office. Instead, Kerry’s own website gives as his goal in Iraq "building a lasting coalition to support our operations"–practically the very words of Bush and Powell today! Houdini himself could not make the troops appear back home out of a "supporting our operations" hat.
When it comes to jobs, Kerry is equally long on nice speeches and short, not to say misleading, on direct proposals.
He proposes giving companies a tax credit if they hire workers; he proposes helping new energy companies start up; he proposes to add and improve companies’ technology; and he proposes to stop laying off teachers. In other words, he proposes that the government continue Bush’s practice of giving handouts to corporations and expecting workers to believe that jobs will eventually trickle down. We have seen how well that worked–for Bush and his friends!
These are not serious proposals to deal with a national disaster; they are the worn-out phrases of a career politician who knows how to promise much–and deliver nothing.
A president ready to deal with the national disaster of joblessness would first of all issue an order that no company that’s made a profit be allowed to lay off any more workers or close any plants. Period. Second, companies claiming they weren’t making profits would be put under government control with continuing jobs, wages and benefits guaranteed. Third, the vast sums today funneled by government to all the various corporations would be diverted to create real jobs for the unemployed, doing the work needed to rebuild and modernize the school buildings, highways, water systems, electrical grids, and other infrastructure that is falling apart all around us due to age and lack of maintenance.
Kerry proposes none of those things–he doesn’t even hint at it, too busy putting corporations at the top of his agenda.
Feb 16, 2004
A group of 200 doctors who treat AIDS patients have called for a campaign against Abbott Labs. Abbott is raising the wholesale price of its anti-AIDS drug Norvir from $54 a month to $265. Norvir is used as a booster with the drugs of other companies. This raises the cost of the drug "cocktail", which Abbott hopes will "steer" patients toward the use of its other drug Kaletra, which doesn’t need boosters, and sells for $563 a month.
Michael Weinstein, the president of AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said this price increase is, "purely and simply a move to wield its patent and monopoly power in the AIDS drug market and increase Abbott’s own profits on this key AIDS drugs." He added that Norvir, "was developed with the help of substantial government underwriting and grants–a taxpayer investment which will now sadly benefit the corporate coffers of Abbott at the expense–literally–of the lives of millions of people living with HIV/AIDS."
Feb 16, 2004
Ten months after the U.S. military captured Baghdad, the residents of that city–or, for that matter, any major city in Iraq–still suffer blackouts for long periods of time. Officially, electricity to neighborhoods is rationed according to a schedule of three hours on and three hours off. As Randy Richardson, the senior American electricity official, recently admitted, however, the blackouts last much longer, especially in Baghdad.
U.S. officials say that they expect this situation to continue for another year or two.
The officials blame the lack of power on looting and sabotage, "technical problems," even "bad weather." Iraqis certainly don’t buy these lame excuses, though–not even those Iraqis who may have had illusions about the U.S. invasion, like the grocery store owner who recently said to a journalist: "Who would have ever believed that the great and mighty America couldn’t bring us something as basic as electricity?"
The U.S. government had no problem transporting and settling tens of thousands of troops and tens of thousands of tons of heavy equipment halfway around the world practically overnight. Of course it is capable of restoring regular, 24-hour electricity service to the people of Iraq–if it so chooses. But the well-being of the population has never been a concern for the U.S. government–not in Iraq, nor in the U.S. or anywhere else.
Feb 16, 2004
The following is a statement issued by the Iranian Solidarity Committee January 25 concerning attacks by the Iranian regime on protesting copper workers.
"Following a protest by laid off contract workers at the Khatoonabad copper smelting plant four workers were shot dead by riot police. It is feared that in addition to this official figure many more workers may also have been killed. The number of injured are said to be around 300, including many seriously injured people.
"The workers, who were demanding permanent jobs, began their protest on 5 January.
"Then following promises made by the plant’s management, which did not come to anything, the workers protested again on 17 January. The protesters were also joined by their families and in total 200-500 people gathered outside the plant in Khatoonabad village, near the town of Babak, in Kerman province (in southeast Iran).
"Today the response of the Iranian government has been to use riot police, special police units and helicopters to kill and maim workers and their families to break up the protest. Death and serious injury is what awaits working class families for simply demanding their basic rights.
"We call on all trade unionists, labor activists and progressive groups and individuals to condemn this barbaric act and to help us in organizing solidarity action in support of the Khatoonabad copper workers."
For further information, you can look up this committee’s website at http://iwsn.topcities.com/
Feb 16, 2004
During February, two large cities and a dozen small villages in Haiti were taken over by opponents of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide–some briefly, some still remain in their control. Police stations were set on fire and some police were reported killed. These incidents followed police attacks on unarmed demonstrators and mysterious fires set against the homes of opponents of the president.
In December and January, there had already been large demonstrations against Aristide, in Port-au-Prince, the capital. When tear gas grenades weren’t enough to send away the demonstrators–many of them young students, the police pulled out their weapons and opened fire with live ammunition. At least 30 students were wounded and a 13-year old was killed. The minister of education resigned to protest the brutality.
At the funeral of the 13-year-old, which became a large demonstration demanding that Aristide resign, the police again threatened the thousands attending the young boy’s funeral.
This small island nation in the Caribbean, with a population of about seven million, is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. The majority exist on less than a dollar a day. From 1957 through 1986, Haiti was ruled by the brutal dictatorship of the Duvalier family. When growing social upsurge from the poorest layers of the population threatened to overthrow the Duvalier regime, the military stepped in and pushed him out of power. In the elections that followed, Aristide won by a big majority. Another military coup then pushed Aristide out of power. But with growing social unrest against the military regime, the Clinton administration sent in troops and restored Aristide to power.
But things have gone badly in Haiti, despite the popularity which brought Aristide to power. Aristide not only used all the methods that politicians use to enrich his followers, he himself, the former priest, is now called "the baron of Tabarre," for the disgusting way in which he has enriched himself.
And not only did Aristide act like the Duvalier family he once opposed, he sent out his own armed gangs, often recruited from among the poorest people. These gangs then turned around and terrorized the very poor neighborhoods in which Aristide first gained his support.
And so this president who was elected by an enthusiastic 70% of the vote is now facing crowds of students and increasingly the poor demanding that he step down two years before his term ends.
Aristide took office promising that Haitians would have peace and better economic conditions. Instead, the working class neighborhoods see no electricity, no garbage collection, and a never-ending increase in the cost of necessities. In the last 10 years, the purchasing power for Haitians has fallen so drastically that starvation is threatening them.
Two well-financed groups, the Convergence, consisting of other politicians, including former supporters of Duvalier and by the Group of 184, a bosses’ group, have been attempting to ride to power based on the population’s growing anger with Aristide. The two main leaders of the Group of 184 are rich bosses long fought by those who work for them. Some bosses actually tried to bribe their work force to go to the anti-Aristide demonstrations. These workers were offered about $6.00 plus a half-bag of rice for going to the demonstrations, which is an enormous amount in such a poor place.
The working class of Haiti have not been a very large part of these demonstrations up till now. And it is not clear who exactly is fighting the police in the cities of the north nor how long their opposition to the government will last.
Some students support better working and living conditions for the whole country; but others simply demand that Aristide step down, allowing their anger to be used by the Convergence or the Group of 184. But the workers are not on the same side as the bosses and politicians. And the students will have to choose their side.
If the working class of Haiti makes its own demands in this opposition to Aristide, then perhaps we will see a new road in the battle for a better life for working people, along with Haitian students and youths.
Feb 16, 2004
On January 28 and 29 there was a general strike in the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean country of eight million people, in response to a disastrous economic situation. The strike paralyzed industry and the tourist areas. It shut down public transport and the schools, while small shop owners shut their doors. There were 600 arrests, a hundred wounded and at least eight deaths over the two days. Three of them were leaders of political parties, unions and community groups, who were assassinated by the police and military. Men wearing camouflage paint on their faces and bearing heavy arms–these are the forces used by the ruling class to put down a population which refuses to pay for the crisis.
The Dominican Republic has been suffering from a severe economic crisis. Over the last three years, the currency has declined by a third in relation to that of other countries, especially the U.S., which has most of the trade with the country. As a consequence, prices in the nation which depends heavily on imports rose by 40%, while wages lagged far behind. Last year, a major bank failed, leading to a widespread financial crisis. The debt level is so high that the government is spending 46% of its entire budget in interest payments to foreign banks and governments, including the U.S.
In order to pay this fantastic amount, the government has been squeezing the population. The general strike was in response to this.
The strikers demanded that the price of basic necessities be lowered and that wages be doubled. They demanded the end of the new fuel tax, which was the final blow that led to the strike. They demanded the end of power failures, the lowering of the price of medicine, the re-nationalization of privatized energy companies, the end of the austerity agreement mandated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a moratorium on paying the foreign debt.
Despite the repression and the arrests of 150 leaders of the opposition, the workers and the poor seem determined not to give in. During the strike, demonstrators stood up to the police and military with showers of rocks and occasional gun shots.
The Dominican Republic is on the east of the island of Hispaniola, and in Haiti on the west. There is more than an island that unites them. They share poverty and misery, and violent repression. They may speak different languages, French in Haiti and Spanish in the Dominican Republic. But they could find a way to unite their fights for a common struggle all across the island.
Feb 16, 2004
The CIA recently accused Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan with providing nuclear secrets, technology and parts to several countries. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf admitted that he had knowledge of Khan’s activities for several years.
So how did the U.S. respond to this trading in "weapons of mass destruction?" Did they demand that Musharraf arrest Khan and sentence him to death for selling nuclear secrets? Did they call for Musharraf to resign? Did they threaten Pakistan with war if this wasn’t done?
No. Khan simply stepped forward to admit his involvement. Musharraf pardoned him. And Bush gave a speech about the dangers of nuclear proliferation.
If you could believe the politicians in Washington, they went to war against Iraq based on the possibility that Iraq might have weapons. Yet in this case they have a confession of guilt and intricate knowledge of some of the participants in this trading scheme. But they are satisfied with an admission of guilt from one man and an apology from Pakistan’s leader, who pardons the guilty man.
Of course, Khan was not alone in the business of selling designs and technology for building nuclear weapons. He was part of an elaborate network involving several companies. These companies produced and sold nuclear weapons producing kits, with everything from blueprints to centrifuges, machine needed for enriching uranium. Enriched uranium is a necessary material for building nuclear bombs.
Khan and his partners purportedly gave away nuclear capabilities to countries that are part of Bush’s supposed "axis of evil," Iran, North Korea, and Libya.
The U.S. response is proof of U.S. complicity in the whole thing–just like the U.S. complicity in arming Saddam Hussein at one time, when they wanted him to make war against Iran. Just like they provided him with weapons of mass destruction to use against the Kurdish population in his own country. Just as they were complicit in training and arming Osama bin Laden when he was useful to them in fighting the Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
All the talk about "weapons of mass destruction" is nothing but a lot of hot air. It’s true that there are huge dangers from these weapons. But the very politicians doing the talking are the people who create the danger.
Feb 16, 2004
President Bush tried to defend his National Guard service by showing his pay stubs, a dental record, and many other equally irrelevant documents.
No one has disputed that he was paid. Lots of influential people get paid for doing nothing. Neither has anyone accused him of failing to get dental attention on the National Guard’s dime. These are phony answers, trotted out to hide what Bush has no real answer for.
The issue is how Bush used his family’s wealth and power to evade service during the Viet Nam war.
Bush can’t deny that he was jumped over 500 applicants already in line for openings in the Texas Air National Guard. Nor can he deny that he was placed in a unit of the Guard that, full of the sons of wealth and privilege, was put to training on obsolete jets that would never be used in war.
Can Bush deny that he requested and received a transfer to the Alabama Guard, and while in Alabama used his time to work on a political campaign? No, nor can he produce any evidence that he actually performed all the hours and duties required of National Guardsmen of that era–in a unit that never faced even a hint of possibility of being sent to Viet Nam.
None of Bush’s documents go one inch toward satisfying those questions. Even more telling, none of those who have accused Bush of evading service–even those using the terms "AWOL" and "deserter"–not one of those accusers has been sued for libel or defamation of character. Not one of the multitude of high-priced lawyers available to Bush and his family has been used to call any of the accusers into court.
If not, it’s not because Bush is a temperate man. It can only be that evidence in court would be too damaging to him.
Bush constantly holds himself up as a model of morality, a model of Christian born-again righteousness. Evasion of his obligations, both legal and moral, during wartime? It certainly indicts him and his pretensions.
But in another way, Bush’s "moral model" is perfectly accurate. Bush, the wealthy frat boy, requested–and got–released from the military six months early, so he could go to Harvard Business School. When asked about it, he said he "worked it out with the military."
Yes, this is the moral model of the wealthy and privileged few, who always know how to begin wars which will enlarge their wealth and privilege–and know how to send the workers and the poor off to fight. This is the moral model of those who know how to "work it out" so they never need serve when others serve, never endure hardship that others endure–and never die where others die.
This is the truly despicable, and wholly accurate, morality which Bush–representing his class–embodies.
Feb 16, 2004
Electrolux, the world’s largest manufacturer of household appliances, announced in mid-January that it would close its Greenville, Michigan, factory in 2005 and would move production to South Carolina and Mexico.
Workers in this small Western Michigan town have been producing refrigerators and earlier, iceboxes, for 127 years. A few years back, Electrolux bought the company. Now, with the stroke of a pen, this profitable plant will throw 2700 workers out in the street, devastating an entire community.
According to Electrolux’s own financial records, the Greenville factory was profitable. But Electrolux wasn’t getting the higher than six% return on investment Electrolux has declared it must have.
The company had toyed with the union and with state officials. It demanded tax breaks in excess of legal limits in Michigan. It demanded concessions of $24,000 per worker per year, which could only have been achieved by violating federal minimum wage laws.
The UAW tentatively agreed for workers to give up $12,600 per person a year. This proposal never came to a vote, since the company had already decided to close the Michigan plant.
Giving up concessions was not going to save jobs. It never does. Michigan had already given "incentives" of 8.7 million dollars to Electrolux for "job creation" in the past. Despite the announced 2,700 job cuts, not one state official has asked for that $8.7 million in "job creation" money back!
Instead the state, which claims to be in a budget crisis, "found" still more money to offer Electrolux: 121.2 million dollars more in tax breaks and grants.
Since 1998, Electrolux, with headquarters in Sweden, has cut over 40,000 jobs–one third of its workforce. It has closed or sold 29 factories and 50 warehouses–some in the U.S. in New Jersey and Colorado, others in Europe.
The CEO of Electrolux explains: "We have grown through acquisitions over the last 30 years or so and bought 450 companies. ...We had duplicate facilities and redundant personnel."
This is the real story–using the profits made off workers’ labor, the company bought up hundreds of other companies, then combined the work and shut some down. And, of course, in all of this, they squeeze more work out of fewer workers. When the shift of Michigan jobs is done, Electrolux plans for the same work to be done by 700 fewer workers!
The downward spiral won’t stop until the day workers attacked like this decide to dig in their feet.
During the period that negotiations were going on to keep the jobs from leaving Michigan, the UAW and state officials kept all of the outrageous details secret. This prevented the possibility of workers organizing a determined fight against these monstrous demands made by the company.
Now that the news is out, it will take at least 2 years for the process of closing the plant to be completed. The workers in Greenville can still decide to make a courageous fight against this company’s decision. In Western Michigan, since 2000, nearly 20,000 layoffs have been announced. The Electrolux workers have allies who could join them to stop business as usual.
Giving in to Electrolux’s demands didn’t stop them–but a determined fight could.
Feb 16, 2004
In January, 375,000 people exhausted their unemployment benefits, while two million more are expected to lose their benefits in the first six months of the year, both records.
The federal program that provided 13-week extensions of unemployment benefits expired in December, and Congress has refused to renew it. This is the third time that the extension was allowed to run out.
It’s outrageous that this program, which is limited to periods when large numbers of people are out of work, has been passed on only a short-term, temporary basis. Even if they eventually renew it again as they have two times before, the situation of the unemployed was made more desperate.
When politicians let a program like this lapse, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without a check, they are forcing people back to work at very low paying jobs–paying less even than unemployment benefits.
The politicians claim that the program had to be cut because of the federal budget deficit. Yet, tax cuts to the wealthy, which were supposedly going to create jobs, will cost 264 billion additional dollars this year alone. This is 40 times the amount needed to pay for extended benefits.
No–the politicians cut programs like this because it serves the capitalist class to have an ever larger pool of labor desperate enough that they are forced to work for any wage. That’s all.
Feb 16, 2004
Dave Louthan, the slaughterhouse worker who killed the first mad cow found in the United States, has given a very different account of that cow, and of the situation in the beef industry, than the government gives. And he’s paid a price for it.
Louthan was the first to reveal that the cow had been ground into hamburger and almost surely eaten by then–two weeks after the cow was killed.
Shortly after that interview, he was fired.
He began to write letters to newspapers and testified in front of the Washington State Legislature. His message: that the mad cow he killed was not too sick to walk, or a "downer" cow, as the Department of Agriculture had reported. "Mad cows aren’t downers. They’re up and they’re crazy," he said.
That means that the one thing the government did after this scare, to prohibit the use of downer cows, does absolutely nothing to stop mad cow meat from getting into the food supply.
Louthan also says that this mad cow was found by a total fluke. It was only because of his decision to kill the cow outside, because he feared it would trample actual downer cows nearby. Cows killed outside are the only ones automatically tested at that slaughterhouse. If it had been killed inside, it would have passed through undetected.
Since the Department of Agriculture is testing only 40,000 cows out of a total of 30 million, the chances are good that many more cows like that are passing into the food supply.
As a carcass splitter Louthan also saw first hand what others have reported but the government has tried to hide–that the technique they use splits the spinal column and sprays spinal matter all over the beef. Since it’s the spinal cord, as well as the brain, that carries the disease, all beef could be contaminated by this procedure.
Finally, Louthan started writing e-mails to a number of inspectors at the Agriculture Department demanding to know what they would do about this dangerous situation. Since then, he’s received regular visits from the department demanding that he shut up about it.
What, or who, is the U.S. Department of Agriculture protecting?
Feb 16, 2004
On February 12, Steven Burd, the CEO of Safeway, threatened that he will close some of its Dominicks stores in Chicago unless the workers agree to pay for part of their health care coverage.
Safeway is the second biggest supermarket chain in the Chicago area with 27% of the market. It is also one of the three big supermarkets in southern California, whose 70,000 workers have been on strike since October 11. Albertsons, which is also being struck in California, owns Jewel stores in Chicago, which have 35% of the Chicago market. Although 62% of Chicago area consumers buy from these two companies, almost no Chicago workers know about the strike in California. The corporate media has no interest in telling them about it, and the unions haven’t.
The Dominicks-Safeway workers themselves are well aware of the strike going on in California–above all because Safeway is demanding much of the same concessions in Chicago as it is in California.
The Dominicks-Safeway union contract expired November 9, 2002, more than a year ago. In late 2002, when the 9,000 union workers turned down the company’s demands for concessions, Safeway threatened to sell Dominicks. Three months ago, saying it couldn’t find a buyer, Safeway returned to negotiations, demanding the same concessions.
The United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW), the union representing workers in both Southern California and Chicago, says it wants to spread the California campaign nationally. So why is the union dithering around, while the company gets rid of stores and makes the same demands in Chicago as in California? A militant strike begun now in Chicago would reinforce the 70,000 California strikers. Together, they could push to mobilize other workers–and not just at supermarkets. They could become the impetus for a broader resistance in the two biggest working class cities in the country.
Feb 16, 2004
On February 6, Baltimore City teachers voted an angry "NO" to demands from the administration for either a pay cut or layoffs. The financially troubled school system had already laid off hundreds of people from administration and support services at Christmas time.
The mayor of Baltimore came back with a counter-offer, a smaller pay cut combined with a loan of eight million dollars from the city. On February 12, the Baltimore City teachers took a second vote, which was an even more resounding "NO."
For years, politicians tried to make teachers cover for what the city, state and federal government didn’t provide to the schools–whether by carrying a heavier class load, more students per class or even by paying for books and supplies out of their own pockets.
Well, it seems the teachers here had enough of trying to patch together what the politicians have torn up.
With their vote, the teachers clearly said they wouldn’t shoulder the blame any more. "This is your mess. You want accountability, you look in the mirror," as one teacher said at a school board meeting.
Yet politicians do have money that could be spent on education. They simply choose to use it for other things. What happened with Morgan Stanley, one of the largest stock brokerages in the U.S., is typical. The corporation just received a 1.75-million-dollar loan from Baltimore City and a 5.5-million-dollar package from the state. Both Baltimore and Maryland say they have budget deficits and have to cut back on personnel and on services. Yet they can still afford corporate welfare.
Morgan Stanley is just one example of the give-aways common in every city and state. It helps us see where the politicians are willing to spend money–not on educating children.
As a Baltimore writer and cartoonist put it in the local paper:
"As ever, errors by the bosses
Turn into the teachers’ losses.
It’s called in Washington,
‘Starving the beast’:
Taking what’s left
from those with the least."