New York State Communist Party

Unions to lobby for "energy democracy" at Paris climate talks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 03:29:00 +0000

Unions to lobby for

"energy democracy"

at Paris climate talks

By Teresa Albano

Originally published @ PeoplesWorld.org (link)

Photo by Murphy Institute, CUNY

Everybody likes to talk about the weather but nobody can do a damn thing about it. Or can they?

Severe weather events that have caused deaths and destruction are linked to climate change - like 2012's Hurricane Sandy that pummeled New York and New Jersey, or the drought in Syria that forced people off their lands and into the cities, helping to create, according toreports, conditions that caused the devastating civil war.

And there is something people can do about climate change.

Despite the billions that Big Oil companies like Exxon Mobil have poured into spreading all kinds of climate change denial narratives, the world's scientists agree overwhelmingly that the planet is warming and it's due to the unprecedented release of human-created greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.

And this warming has a cascading effect that even scientists cannot forecast. For one thing, glaciers and gigantic ice floes are melting into the oceans causing sea levels to rise, which in turn, threatens island nations like Fiji or low-lying regions of the United States, like the Florida Everglades. It's changing ocean currents and atmospheric patterns, leading to extreme weather events of all kinds - yes, including more severe blizzards too.

And who are the biggest victims of climate change?

Working people around the world - the poor, the underpaid, the jobless, the exploited.

Now, unions worldwide are preparing to make sure the voices and needs of working people are included in the final United Nations Climate Change Summit in Paris, Nov. 30 - Dec. 11. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) plans to lobby negotiators and leaders of some 190 countries during the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference on three issues:

Raise the level of "ambition" in the emission targets and by doing so "realize" job creation potential in the greening of economies;

Guarantee the most vulnerable people and nations get the maximum financial help;

Commit to a "just transition" for workers and their communities involved in industries that rely on fossil fuels.

Among the U.S. union delegates will be Sean Sweeney, PhD, who is the coordinator of a global network called Trade Unions for Energy Democracy. He is also the director of the International Program forLabor, Climate and Environment, which is part of the City University of New York's Murphy Institute. Sweeney told People's World that there will be official union participation that focuses on the formal talks in Paris, but unions will also collaborate with other social movements in hosting discussions, debates and networking events outside of the official UN summit.

On Dec. 8, TUED and other union groups will host Naomi Klein, author of "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate," and British Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in a conversation entitled, "Now Is Not the Time for Small Steps: Solutions to the Climate Crisis and the Role of Trade Unions."

This session is shaping up to be the largest-ever union event at a climate meeting, Sweeney said in a Nov. 23 interview (to be featured in an upcoming People's World podcast). There is not yet widespread activism on climate change among the world's unions, nor is there unanimity on cutting carbon emissions, as jobs are often at stake. But there is a growing recognition among U.S. and other unions worldwide that action on climate change is an issue for working people and their communities.

The Paris summit presents "a great organizing opportunity," Sweeney said. In addition to the Klein/Corbyn event, TUED will be "trying to get unions to support a trade union call for a global moratorium on fracking for shale gas and shale oil. And that has already gotten quite a lot of union support," he said.

The other mission Sweeney will be focused on - reducing carbon emissions - is more complicated as it entails the science of climate change and the calculus of politics and social change in each country, but especially in the United States. Sweeney said the voluntary emission targets currently being proposed are "inadequate" to avoid climate catastrophe, according to the scientific data. In order to have an "adequate" agreement, he said, public control and democratization of energy, transportation, food and other systems would have to be "expanded dramatically." "The trade union movement needs a bolder narrative. We support the science and must take the solutions more seriously. And that means a bolder agenda," he said. Nobel-Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has said President Obama's policies on climate change and the environment are shaping up to be a "major legacy" for Obama. But Sweeney pointed to the negative impact of the vociferous right wing in the U.S. that denies the existence of climate change and acts in Congress on behalf of Big Oil and Big Coal. It has limited what the White House has been able to do on the issue. Because of this, he said, he gives the Obama administration only a "B" or "B minus."

"The answer to the deniers and the right wing is not Obama's climate policy. The answer is a truthful assessment of U.S. emission trends and what's really happening," Sweeney said. If methane emissions were accurately reported, emissions would not look good at all, he said.

When the president says the United States is "reducing emissions more than any other country ... It's simply not true," Sweeney said. The United States emits more carbon per capita than any other country except Canada.

Regardless of the frustrations, Sweeney sees a way forward in raising the stakes and pressing for systemic change. "The problem is not emissions, the problem is capitalism," he said. But he cautions, that doesn't mean the way forward is to declare, "It's capitalism, stupid, and we've got to get rid of capitalism first, and then we'll take care of the climate issue."

On the contrary, Sweeney said, "The climate issue is like every other issue, it's very important to working people, poor people, people around the world. It threatens their food, their water, their lives. Extending the political and economic influence of workers is crucial to solving the climate crisis. If workers extend their control and power over politics and economic decision-making, I very much doubt, if it goes to the full process and conclusion, that what's left standing would be called capitalism."

"But I've been wrong on many things in the past," he said. "Maybe we can be surprised with what history comes up with." In any case, he concluded, we may see "an eco-cidal scenario unless we do something about it."

People's World will be on the scene in Paris to cover the United Nations historic climate change summit, and we want to bring you with us. You can join our growing team of supporters with your donation and bring us to a new level of recognition and influence.

It’s in our Hands... (On the Direction of the CPUSA)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 19:00:00 +0000

Basis for summarized Remarks before the

National Committee Meeting of CPUSA

Chicago Illinois • November 14^th 2015

It’s in our Hands….

By Jarvis TynerMember of the National Committee, CPUSA

I am deeply concerned.

I come before you today with a heart full of a love for our party and all comrades. Because I love our party I have deep concerns about the current political and organizational direction we are headed in.

We are at a critical moment in our history. This is a time when an open socialist can run for the highest office in the land and win the support not of thousands but of millions. There is also a good fighting chance that our nation may elect its first Liberal Democratic woman President. At the same time, the extreme right is using this election to make a big push to restore its momentum, to win total political dominance put their disastrous program fully in place. After the new level of mass rejection they have faced during the Obama era they are pushing for new decades of extreme right wing rule.

Donald Trump the extreme right wing demagogue is running hard on the anti immigrant, racist, pro war, pro corporate, anti women policies. As the GOP front-runner he poses a grave threat to democracy. Ben Carson’s policies are just as destructive. The fact that these two are leading the Republican wolf pack is not a sign of strength it is a sign of the political and moral bankruptcy of that party.

Fortunately, there is a multi racial labor and people’s progressive electoral coalition that defeated them in 2008 and 2012. If inspired, organized and united they can be defeated again. Our party’s role is very important and in many areas we are recognized and welcomed as a active part of that winning coalition.

My Concerns…

The idea being pushed in our ranks that our Party faces an “existential crisis”, does not inspire but demoralizes comrades and I believe is a wrong assessment. It’s not accurate and it promotes the false view in my opinion that we are weak, ineffective even moribund. That is not the experience in NY District and in other districts as well. Many of our allies and coalition partners do not agree with that assessment either and wish the party well. If that assessment is adopted as a starting point in our work it can become a self-fulfilling disaster for our Party.

I have in my hands 30 recruitment cards from the NYC area which I believe are 30 good reasons to reject that assessment. These are people who have joined since 2013 from our mass work. It does not include our internet joiners and new members in the upstate areas.

Just last week in our district, Estevan our party organizer and our rep on the planning Committee of the food workers action, on Tuesday introduced the political approach and basic ideas that helped forge the alliance of the low wage workers movement and the Black Lives Matter movement. We also took many timely practical steps to realize that alliance. Our prestige in both movements has gone way up. Because of that kind of work, Eric Garner’s mother Gwen Carr agreed to be an honoree at our Better World Awards luncheon along with Amina Baraka, Ricky Eisenberg, Ava Farkus, new Director of Met Council on Housing and Jose Sanchez a leader of the NY Fast Food forward movement.

Some of you may have seen the picture of Estevan in the NY Daily News. He was right up front at the Fast Food Workers demo in NY. And we had a full house at the “Better World Awards Luncheon. It was a beautiful event.

A Party of Action

To be effective we communists must not only talk the talk, we must also walk the walk.

If it is our financial situation that threatens our existence, let’s discuss it. Lets develop a plan. It certainly does not call for a “panic move” like selling our NY building. Our building is the largest source of income we have and the most solid foundation for our future financial stability. If we sell the building, a potentially grave crisis will exist in our future.

I understand that we have a problem of age and energy among our most committed and experienced members. I am for positive advances in the work of the party but we should not dismantle the political and organizational essence of our party because some of our veterans are demoralized or just tired. I understand that but like a lot of us I know this Party can attract more youth and can be built and we are doing it.

I do not believe we are on our last leg as a Party...

In my view, that the estimate is not helping us move forward. It is helping to rationalize major political and organizational retrenchments of our Party when this is a time when a revitalized and growing CPUSA is needed.

But, let me say this, even if we were facing the projected collapse of our Party I believe we must not give up and not abandon longstanding Party norms, but mobilize our membership and supporters and fight our way out of it just as this Party has done numerous times for over 96 years.

2. I am for a powerful on-line presence going back to Gus Hall’s information Super Highway concept back in the 1980’s. But that has never meant that we didn’t need an active and well organized, functioning party organization as well.

3. I am for the new initiative to build a communist students organization. But why should it mean we have to liquidate the organization of the YCL among non-college youth. If a district wants to build the YCL why can’t it? By the way, in my opinion, that is a decision that should have been made at the 30^th Convention but it was not. The same with the dropping Leninism which was pushed as a tactical change (Americanize our basic language) but in life, as the youth proposal shows it was a rejection of the Leninist concept of the organizational independence of the youth league.

Personally I quote all kinds of US historic and current heroic figures but I see no contradiction in also quoting Lenin and calling myself a Marxist-Leninist.

4. I am for finding the forms to aggressively organize the over 2,000 at large Internet members but I am also for the restoration of Party organizational norms. So we cannot just talk that talk but “Walk that Walk” a lot better. We are a party of action and we need organized clubs, districts and commissions. We need dues collection and well-organized fund drives. We need recruiting drives and public meetings all across the country.

To do what needs to be done, we need to work towards the restoration of functioning organizational collectives in the Party on all levels.

If we cannot find a National Organizational Secretary today finding one and building a collective should nevertheless be on the Party’s “wish list” as something we work for.

And why can’t we have a regular modest organizational newsletter that would report on the good work of the party across the country?

5. I am for the on-line People’s World that is considered a movement newspaper but at the same time why can’t it also be the newspaper of the Communist Party? The current experience with the PW in the labor movement, and with the “Better world Awards Luncheons” shows that this can be done and our core constituencies will support us. We need a fighting Party with a mass paper, not a mass newspaper with a weak or worse no Party… That is if we are to remain a revolutionary working class Party….

When you couple these proposals with the push to change the name of the party (which must be a convention decision also) I ask, have we concluded that we cannot build the Communist Party USA today? And again, is this the conclusion of a group of people who are tired? Certainly it is not a conclusion we have come to together.

A lot of comrades feel that we are backing into a phased liquidation of this great party of ours. Are we giving up the leading role of the working class and industrial concentration and the centrality of fight against racism? Our efforts at recruitment among people of color and workers might suggest perhaps we are. I hope I am wrong on this but it looks to me like some leading comrades have given up on the party having a public face and feel that we have to hide the party. If that is true, it is the biggest problem we face.

I think if we are going to have a presence at demos, county fairs, union events and peace and environment conferences, street fairs and door to door concentration, we need well written mass pamphlets and literature. And why can’t we work to have a hard copy of the PW and PA once or twice a year to start.

I believe we must not let what we can’t do stop us from doing what we can do. There is a lot we can do. We need honest discussions on all these matters.

In conclusion, in 3 years our party will celebrate our 100^th Birthday. This is a big occasion and we must make it a big deal. Every September up to then we should be a celebration ending with our Centennial in 2019.

We had a celebration of our 96th in our district and over 60 people came and we recruited 5 members.

Finally, on our legacy.

We should not allow the basic character of our party to be defined by our mistakes shortcomings, rather then by our hard work, and tenacity and courage that over came the most vicious, coordinated unrelenting effort by the most powerful imperialist class in the world to destroy us. Under those conditions we fought back and scored victories.

Today we are the only political party in the US that thinks its necessary to do a public mea culpa to be credible. It is US capitalist ruling class that owes the people here and around the world including our Party specifically an apology for its crimes.

Our Party’s courage and sacrifices produced the greatest victories of our class and people. Bill Foster, Gus, Winny, Elizabeth, Hy, Ben, Ethel, Julius, Betty, Irving, Claudia, William Burghardt, Robeson, Gene Dennis and Angela Davis; all of the great comrades and more went to jail, or where exiled and persecuted to legalize this party and advance the fight for democracy. They sacrificed much so that the people’s movement and our party could survive and continue its great contribution. They did it so that we US Communists today wouldn’t have to endure such attacks in the future.

“Don’t give up the fight”

We are still here and still fighting. This party has been and must continue to be a force for enormous good and progress.

…It is in our hands.

Let me end by saying this. I have no malice towards any comrade, whether they agree or disagree with me. I am for Party unity. I am motivated primarily by a concern for the long term survival, growth and well-being this party of ours.. as a revolutionary working class party.

It’s in our hands…

ALBANY LEGISLATIVE SESSION 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 03:26:00 +0000

ALBANY LEGISLATIVE SESSION ENDSTime to Unite the People’s Forces

Statement by the New York District, Communist Party USA

The challenge now is to unite the various people’s forces into a vibrant working class-led coalition and to actively participate in the legislative and electoral process around a number of key issues, such as mass incarceration and police brutality, the DREAM Act, quality public education, the enactment of a $15 an hour minimum wage, affordable housing, and an expansion of labor rights. The strength of a united, militant, and well-organized movement shook Albany and forced a conservative retreat on a number of issues. That in itself must be seen as a people’s victory.

The Communist Party of New York is in full accord with and active in these broad people’s movements.

Raising the Minimum Wage - Governor Cuomo won reelection in part based upon a “good faith” commitment both to raise New York’s $8.75 an hour minimum wage and to allow high-cost cities to set wages that reflect local costs of living. However the governor’s eventual proposal of $10.50 an hour statewide and $11.50 an hour in New York City fell well short of a living wage. The governor backed down in the face of Wall Street and its Senate Republicans whose majority he helped ensure, and no action on the minimum wage was taken. While the broad public movement of fast-food workers, other low-wage workers and allies forced the governor to request a wage board for fast-food workers, his lack of leadership during the past term has left millions of working families in poverty.

Rent Regulations - The rent regulation laws, which expired on June 15, were extended for four years. The rent laws govern rents of some 1 million apartments in New York City and its suburbs. The renewal slightly increased the threshold rent, from $2,500 to $2,700 a month. The threshold is indexed to local Rent Guideline Board (RGB) increases. Vacated apartments reaching that limit can be deregulated.

The tenants’ movement wanted vacancy deregulation and other tools used to gut the rent regulated stock eliminated altogether but the powerful real estate/Wall Street forces lobbied to further weaken regulations. While the law that finally passed represents a stalemate, a million residencies continue to be threatened. Without the militant organized tenants’ campaign, there is every indication that the rent regulation laws would have been gutted.

Tax Abatements for Developers - The 421-a program, which grants large tax abatements for real estate developers, was renewed again. The tax abatement is designed to incentivize developers to build more affordable housing, but has not resulted in significant affordable unit construction and costs the city over a billion dollars in lost revenue each year. As amended the law raised the “affordability” requirement from 20% to 25-30% of units in new construction for developers to qualify. In the end, the new law basically retains the provisions of the old law, with some major anti-tenant changes: the 25-year tax abatement was extended for another 10 years, making it a 35-year tax break; the definition of “affordable” was increased from those making 60% of Area Median Income (AMI) to include those making up to 130% of the AMI; and finally developers and representatives of state construction unions must, within six months, negotiate an agreement regarding wages on 421-a projects. If no agreement is reached, the entire program will be repealed.

The tenants’ movement had wanted to stop the million-dollar giveaways to developers and instead have the city invest its increased tax revenues to build affordable housing. Because the people’s progressive forces could not find common ground on some elements of their opposition to the tax abatements, we could not win more.

Mayoral Control of New York City Board of Education - When a progressive-leaning slate assumed the reins of city government, control of education became a contentious issue between Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio. Instead of granting the mayor extended control of the Board of Education, as de Blasio had sought, the law passed in Albany only provides for one year of control. This limits the mayor’s power to enact the people’s agenda in public schools while expanding that of for-profit charter schools. The corporate attack on public education continues.

Education Tax Credit - Governor Cuomo had initially proposed a $150 million tax credit to individuals and corporations who finance scholarships and tuition fees. Faced with mounting opposition to that giveaway while public education is shortchanged, Cuomo backed off. The legislature nevertheless provided $250 million in new public funding for private education to finance programs mandated by the state.

Police Accountability - The struggle to hold law enforcement accountable to the communities it serves continues. Bills granting individuals the “right to know” by whom and why they are stopped during a police encounter and for a special prosecutor in police-involved shootings were supported by the NYS Assembly. Gov. Cuomo promised to support these initiatives but reneged during negotiations. In response to pressure from the movement for police accountability Gov. Cuomo has used executive power to appoint New York Attorney General as special prosecutor. This is a temporary measure and legislative action is necessary to make the reform permanent.

Criminal Justice - Some 30,000 adolescents are confined as adults in New York State prisons and are extremely vulnerable, as was dramatically shown by the death of Kahlif Browder who languished for three years on Rikers Island. The City Council and State Assembly passed bills to “raise the age” and leave North Carolina as the only state to incarcerate children with adults. Opposition from Senate Republicans together with inaction by Gov. Cuomo caused this bill to fall short of legislation.

In the session just ended, the legislature failed to enact a number of vital bills, including, in particular, the provision of any increase in statewide and local minimum wages, removal of children from adult prisons and the adoption of tuition assistance to undocumented students.

In evaluating the gains and losses for the people of New York State in the 2015 legislative session, we should take into account the strength of the opposing constituencies.

The majority of people living in the state of New York are working class while racially and nationally oppressed people are the fastest growing sector. The people of New York are electing to office more candidates who reflect this. Seeing the writing on the wall, the real estate/Wall Street forces were desperate for the Legislature to gut rent regulations, as well as to keep tax breaks and subsidies for themselves and to continue to shortchange public education. The warnings posted on that wall:

• The pushback against right-wing policies, especially from the financial and real estate industries, over the nation’s largest city by the 2013 election of a new progressive-leaning New York City government.

• A serious challenge to the vacillating Andrew Cuomo in the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial primary from Zephyr Teachout, independent progressive and anti-monopoly candidate.

• A strong showing by Working Families Party candidates in November 2014 including strong vote totals in upstate races and the recent election to the Assembly of Diana Richardson in Brooklyn.

• Sheldon Silver’s loss of the Assembly speakership following his indictment for corruption and the resulting increased importance of progressive forces in that chamber.

• Removal of Republican Dean Skelos from his position as majority leader of the State Senate, weakening the control his party holds in that chamber.

Dr. Martin Luther King said “the moral arc of history is long but bends towards justice”. The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) has a 95 year history of bending that arc. The struggle continues and the New York District, CPUSA is committed to being an active and unifying force in it.

Presupuesto Estatal para Inmigrantes en NY

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 May 2015 06:02:00 +0000

por Sara Ladino Cano

En la temporada en que el gobierno del estado de Nueva York toma decisivas resoluciones

sobre el presupuesto estatal, organizaciones como Se Hace Camino Nueva York (MRNY,

por sus siglas en inglés) cuestionan las decisiones llevadas a cabo en la capital. Tanto

jóvenes como adultos demandan mejores determinaciones a nivel gubernamental.

La organización Se Hace Camino Nueva York ha demandado al gobierno un presupuesto

para inmigrantes en Nueva York. Donde no menos del veintitrés por ciento de la población

que normalmente es olvidada tendría un espacio que ocupar en el presupuesto. Las

propuestas incluidas en el presupuesto figuran temas tan importantes como la educación,

trabajo, y salud. El área de educación contiene el Acta del Sueño (DREAM Act), un asunto

que fue debatido y llevado a voto el año pasado en la capital. Sin embargo, se ha

transmitido en noticias locales que esta cuestión ha sido excluida del presupuesto estatal.

Miembros del grupo de jóvenes de Se Hace Camino Nueva York han respondido

disgustados a estas aclamaciones “Esta noticia rompe mi corazón. Justo después de la

semana de Somos el Futuro, cuando todo Albany estuvo hablando sobre pasar el Acta del

Sueño (DREAM Act), el gobernador publicó un op-ed en New York Post comprometiéndose

a pasarlo. Ahora, el mismo día, entendemos que él está retirando el Acta del Sueño del

presupuesto. La noticia de hoy me hace pensar que el gobernador sólo nos hace promesas

vacías, y no está realmente defendiendo nuestros sueños. Pero no nos detendremos –

vamos a seguir presionando al gobernador y a sus senadores para asegurarnos de que el

Acta del Sueño en Nueva York se haga realidad este año.” Así como los sueños

destrozados de muchos jóvenes, las necesidades y derechos de muchos otros inmigrantes

están siendo igualmente olvidados, es por esto que SHCNY solicita al gobierno un

presupuesto que incluya toda la población de Nueva York. Los trabajadores han sido

incorporados al presupuesto para inmigrantes, en éste se cubren las necesidades en el

trabajo como el aumento del saldo mínimo a 15 dólares la hora. Esta propuesta no es sólo

demandada por SHCNY, ni es una necesidad exclusiva de los inmigrantes, esta propuesta

ha sido demandada por diferentes conjuntos de la población Neoyorquina y es una

necesidad de gran importancia. Si el gobernador decide derrumbar esta propuesta, no serán

los sueños de tantos inmigrantes que serán destrozados la única consecuencia sino también

el quebrantamiento de las esperanzas de millones de familias. En el área de salud, una

materia no de necesidad sino de derecho, el presupuesto de inmigrantes en Nueva York

determina la urgencia en asegurar un sistema de salud comprensible para todos los

inmigrantes. Es de suma importancia reconocer esta significativa instancia, el derecho a la

salud es imprescindible e inalienable, no puede pasar por alto la relevancia que significa

incorporar el tema de salud a inmigrantes en el presupuesto estatal.

“El acta de sueño (DREAM Act) es una legislación que le provee las herramientas a

jóvenes indocumentados para poder realizar sus sueños educativos e igualmente beneficiar

al estado de Nueva York con un grupo de jóvenes graduados talentosos que llevarán a NY

a un nivel más alto en tecnología, arte, ciencia, escritura, entre otras carreras. Al pasar

esta legislación el estado estaría invirtiendo en un futuro más progresivo que fomenta la

educación sin barreras y que al mismo tiempo obtendrá beneficios económicos por medios

de taxes en los cuales una persona graduada de la universal provee más dinero por taxes

que una persona graduada de la preparatoria. Pasar esta legislación va a motivar a

muchos más jóvenes indocumentados que están en la escuela a terminar su educación y a

las personas que han tenido que dejar de estudiar por condiciones y experiencias únicas, el

acta del sueño los podría motivar para retomar su educación y obtener un mejor futuro. Se

dice que 9 de cada 10 latinos prioriza educación pero solamente 42% continúan

estudiando porque barreras económicas, al pasar esta ley, se estaría balanceando esta

barrera.” La opinión de activistas como Mateo Tabares, líder y organizador en la SHCNY

del grupo de jóvenes, no es normalmente bien atendida por las cúpulas del gobierno

Estadounidense. Como es normal en países como Estados Unidos, donde prevalecen las

ganancias y el beneficio de pocos, la opinión pública es manipulada y controlada por

gobiernos como el que ahora gobierna en el estado de Nueva York. En ocasiones como las

que ahora viven los inmigrantes estadounidenses de todas las edades, y no solo ahora sino

desde hace varias décadas atrás, criticismo nace en las comunidades más vulneradas y de

allí mismo se construye conciencia social. Es entonces cuando las poblaciones más

desfavorecidas se encaminan hacia un cambio social demandando a su gobierno por una

vida digna con justicia social; lo cual tendría que ser demandado al Estado como una

responsabilidad social que este mismo debería de asumir.

Minimum Wage March: NYC FIGHT FOR $15 In Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 May 2015 04:14:00 +0000

This is a section from Tyko's Wassup this Week blog posted April 29th 2015. Link to complete Minimum Wage March: NYC FIGHT FOR $15 In Pictures
http://tykos-wassupthisweek.blogspot.com/

America always has had a troubled relationship to the Communist Party, particularly after the onset of the Cold War. Nevertheless, the Communist Party USA, which was established in 1919, played a not insignificant role during its first twenty years in the expansion of the American middle class. The Communist Party was a major actor in the founding of the first industrial unions which succeeded in raising wages for all workers; it was a major defender of the civil rights of black Americans; it opposed racism and pushed for integration in the workplace and in the community; and it was among the first organizations to push for women's equality and what today would be called "comparable worth" in the workplace.

However, after the late 1940s, a form of virulent anti-Communism emerged in America, characterized by the paranoid, demagogic and reckless Joseph McCarthy. From this time forward, words like "communism" and "socialism" would become interchangeable and synonymous with something "anti-American." Americans of a wide range of political persuasion found it difficult to simply use these terms in any neutral way.

Even today, we encounter the distortion of political discourse begun by Joseph McCarthy in regard to words like "communism" and "socialism." Take Aaron Klein's 2010 book on Obama, The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists. Take the several examples of anti-Communist political rhetoric from a 2013 article by Marc Brodine. Take Elspeth Reeve's 2013 article in The Wire on Ted Cruz (who I think sounds like McCarthy reborn), "Ted Cruz Sees Communists."

Today's Communist Party USA is based in New York City, and its presence can be seen at most every social and political demonstration. Yet, in past blog posts in which I have covered demonstrations, I was conscious of a reluctance to focus on them. Such was the effectiveness of seventy years of conservative political demagoguery and its abuse of words like "socialism" and "communism." Even I, a liberal and progressive, felt cowed and chose to avoid "conflict."

So in this, my extended commentary below my photograph of the flag of the New York State Communist Party, I begin to make amends. The Communists belong to us and with us as much as anybody else. I invite you to open this link to the Party's Constitution and read its Preamble. With the exception of our most rigid Republicans and conservatives, few could argue with what it says. I conclude with the opening sentence of its final paragraph: "Our organizational practices are based on democracy, equality, unity of action and transparency."

“Peace and planet” marchers at UN: “No more nukes!”

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 15:57:00 +0000

NEW YORK - It was a picture perfect Sunday here on Apr. 26 for a peaceful march against the most violent instruments of war ever created by humanity: nuclear weapons. The demonstration was sponsored by Peace and Planet: Mobilization for a Nuclear-Free, Peaceful, Just & Sustainable World.

Nearly 8,000 thousand activists assembled at Union Squares Park's north side on Broadway at E 17th St. to listen to speakers and then marched up Third Ave. to the United Nations to deliver eight million signatures.

I walked through the crowds and talked with people from all parts of the world who all had one thing on their minds: peace.

Here is what they said, in many cases, with passionate exhortation.

A retired New Yorker: "I am here to add my voice to this movement to abolish nuclear weapons...and I think it should start here in the United States." Standing next to him was a young woman from Kyoto, Japan. She knew very little English, but she uttered with great confidence, "No Nukes" and "Peace!"

Coyd, a young African American, taking pictures with his camera,said he was there "to make sure the world knows that we are all here!"

And Brooks Kelly, who was balancing his young daughter on his shoulders as he marched with a delegation from the U.S. Peace Council said, "I'm here for my children and their future." His friend, Joe, standing with him, added, "Yes! And it seems like the United States enters a new war every week."

Howard, another retired New Yorker, who said he wanted to put an end to defense spending, noted that "we need money for education, health care and a long list of other human needs..."

Gary, from Massachusetts Peace Action, which advocates the abolishment of nuclear weapons, said that on the day of his son's birth, June 12, 1982, the largest demonstration against nuclear weapons in United States history was held here in New York City and that following that demonstration there were treaties that limited the proliferation of nuclear weapons. "So," he continued, "protesting is worth it!"

Punctuating Gary's story later in the day was Diane Beeny from a New Jersey group called "The Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance Committee." She was wearing a vintage t-shirt distributed at the June 12, 1982 event. "I have been active in the anti-nuclear movement a long time," she said with obvious pride, adding, "For a peaceful, just and sustainable world we also need to fight against racism and economic inequality."

As the marchers assembled for their parade to the United Nations I spotted Vinie Burrows, the award-winning Broadway actress and women's activist, helping her peace associates hold up a huge banner. Burrows, who has fought innumerable battles for social justice, said it was "wonderful to be in solidarity with our Japanese brothers and sisters demanding no more war, no more nuclear weapons which result in human catastrophe like Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

Kasuya Takako from Shizuoka, Japan was helping to carry a huge, beautifully colored banner with her associates from the organization, "Shizuoka Mothers' Congress Liaison Committee."

Ms. Takako is its chairperson.

She described how her two grandchildren, Ririha, 10, and Honoba, 8, drew some of the lovely pictures featured on their banner.

Dancing to a disco beat in the middle of Union Square and enjoying the celebratory atmosphere with her fellow unionists, I met "Cettina." She is Vice-President of Local 255 of the United Electrical workers (UE) from Vermont. She said they had come to New York to be "in solidarity with the Zenroren delegates from Japan" and her message was simply "No More Nukes!We are here especially because it is the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima."

Another UE worker, Gary DeLuke from Local 170 in West Virginia, felt very strongly about his presence at the march:

"I am here to connect with my fellow workers around the world-to find common ground with them-peace is important for working people because war means workers are fighting workers-war is very rarely in their interest."

Listening attentively to the speakers was a young Japanese man from Tokyo. His name was

Yohei Nakamura, a 23-year old chairperson of a student committee from Tokyo. "I am here for peace," he said, as he handed me a bouquet of tiny paper hand-crafted origami peace doves which were omnipresent throughout the event.

Resting on a bench in Dag Hammarskjold plaza, a park near the United Nations where the march ended, I met Franco Omar, holding on to a pole with a poster from the Peace and Planet Mobilization. Omar is from the Dominican Republic and lives here in the city. "I am here because nuclear weapons scare me," he said. "We not only have to worry about the violent potential of nuclear weapons, but also about the serious problem of the disposal of nuclear waste. I believe nuclear waste causes cancer."

A French delegation from Marseille included 80 members wearing straw hats and carrying blue banners that read, "Le mouvement De La Paix (peace); Empechons Les Guerres, Cultivons La Paix (prevent wars, cultivate peace). Radia and her husband Michel, were especially concerned that support is generated for NPR-the non-proliferaion treaty.

Jarvis Tyner, New York District chair of the CPUSA was standing tall throughout the march, greeting demonstrators and observing the dynamics of this international outpouring for peace and against nuclear weapons. Tyner, who is originally from Philadelphia and is a former union activist for the Teamsters, has just completed a pamphlet, "Black Lives Matter." For copies: NY@cpusa.org.

He said: "The ultimate weapon of terrorism is nuclear weapons. The Obama administration is fighting nuclear terrorism by negotiating with Iran." He asked, "So, when are we-the United States-going to take the necessary steps to rid ourselves of nuclear weapons? How are you going to eliminate terrorism if we don't eliminate nuclear weapons?"

As the day wore on the weather became cloudy and cool with marchers drifting home to well-deserved dinners and places to sit and relax. But one leaves such an event heavy with thoughts and understanding of what can be accomplished when people come together for a good purpose. One of the origami "birds" thrust into my hand had a message printed in it. It read,

"There is no excuse for nuclear weapons. Weapons of mass destruction can't be necessary for world peace. From Japan, the only country to be hit by nuclear bombs."

Thousands in Harlem rally against gun violence

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:48:00 +0000

NEW YORK -
More than 2,000 predominantly Black and Latino working people gathered March 21 on Adam Clayton Powell Blvd. in Harlem in a militant protest against gun violence.

Organized by a broad coalition of labor and people's organizations, it was a powerful grassroots protest against the National Riffle Association and a warning to Congress that it must pass strong gun control legislation, including a ban on assault weapons.

George Gresham, president of Local 1199 of the Service Workers, captured the fighting spirit of the rally. In a message to all elected officials, Gresham said, "We are the people; do the right thing and we got your back. Do the wrong thing, we got your job."

MSNBC commentator, the Rev. Al Sharpton, addressing the NRA, declared: "We have the right to bear arms but we do not have the right to kill babies. The second amendment does not give you the right to have guns that can hold 30 rounds. We have to take back our streets here in New York and beyond."

When I asked a retired New York State Superior Court Judge-turned- community-organizer why she was attending the rally, she said, "The failure to pass a bill against gun violence is an acceptance of a policy of genocide against Blacks and Latinos by the authorities."

Leslie Cagan, who was part of the organizing team for the rally, said that the demonstration was particularly important in light of the Senate leadership having announced that day that the assault weapons ban would be left out of the legislative package. "We need Congress to find the backbone to stand up for communities and families here in Harlem and all over the country," Cagan declared.
The gathering took place in the shadow of the Adam Clayton Powell Harlem State office building and across the street from the historic Teresa Hotel where, in 1960, Fidel Castro stayed after having been offended by downtown hotels. Hundreds of workers representing many of the key unions in New York, were represented.

Among them were Local 1199, 32BJ of the SEIU. There was a contingent from Local 1180 of the Communications Workers of America. The Transport Workers Union, the United Federation of Teachers and the Professional Staff Congress were also there.

There were signs from "Nurses and Caregivers United to Stop Gun Violence. Other signs included, "Moms demand action to protect our kids," and a contingent of youth wearing t-shirts emblazoned with "I Am a Peace Movement" and "Youth Against Gun Violence."

Jackie Rowe Adams from Harlem Mothers S.A.V.E spoke with great passion about losing two of her children to gun violence. "I am in pain," she said tearfully. "Put the guns down and pick up the peace sign." There were several mothers who told heartfelt stories of how they lost their sons to gun violence.

There was also Darren Wagner, from Newton, Conn. expressing his community's full support to the people of New York in their fight for gun control.

Hazel Dukes, president of New York State's NAACP, spoke and called for the unity of black, brown and white, Jews, Gentiles, Protestants, and Muslims. "We all have to get ready for a real fight."
Shannon Watts, the founder of "Moms Demand Action," a national group of 80,000 advocating strong gun control, talked about her activities.

Michael Mulgrew, president of New York's UFT, told the crowd that his union was divesting from any stocks that have anything to do with guns.

An emergency room doctor from Harlem Hospital, Dr. Vanessa Gorospe, said, "Gun violence is second only to auto accidents as a cause of death. The number of children below five years old killed by guns are four times the number of police killed by guns."

Refusing to buy into attempts by the NRA and some other groups to scapegoat the mentally ill, she declared: "The mentally ill are four times more likely to be victims of violence rather than purveyors of violence."

The surprise guest at the rally who received a warm welcome was legendary jazz singer Tony Bennett. He spoke of how Harry Belafonte had convinced him to march in Selma and how it had a big impact on him. Bennett is now an outspoken advocate of an assault weapons ban.

The chair of the rally. the Rev. Jacque DeGraff of the Cannan Baptist Church, aroused the crowd as he introduced speakers. He emphasized, as did many other speakers, that it was necessary to keep pushing to pass Gov. Cuomo's gun control bill and that it is necessary to carry the fight to Washington. "We are going to change America, starting right here in Harlem," he declared.

There were many elected officials at the rally including two running for mayor. None were allowed to speak but their names were mentioned, John Lui, the first Chinese-American to run for Mayor, received the loudest applause.

In a related development, Mayor Bloomberg has announced that he is prepared to spend millions to run ads against those running for office who are opposed to gun control. One person at the rally told me that, in addition to controlling guns, Bloomberg needs to control the New York Police Department.

The department has come under heavy criticism for carrying out a notorious "stop and frisk" program which critics note singles out Blacks and Latinos but does nothing to control crime.

Estevan Nembhard, Manhattan organizer for the Communist Party, pointed out that "it is common knowledge in Harlem and in ghettos and barrios across the country; when the unemployment rate and drop-out rate goes up, so does desperation and violence. This rally is very important and will help but not enough was said about the root causes of violence; the lack of jobs, education, the presence of drugs and the absence of a real future for our youth."

Nembhard agreed that "Mayor Bloomberg is doing a good thing placing ads against the anti-gun control politicians across the country." But he took issue with the mayor on a host of what he considers related issues: "His (Bloomberg's) cut backs and policy of economic austerity for the working class, along with 'stop and frisk' and his sanction of brutality and high incarceration for youth instead of jobs and education, will continue to get the same negative results."

People at the rally like most New Yorkers, seemed to agree that good jobs and good quality education for all are necessary steps to ending gun violence on the streets.

NYC elections hold promise of change

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:35:00 +0000

NEW YORK --

The New York City Nov. 5 elections can mark a turning point. During the last 20 years of the Giuliani and then Bloomberg administrations, the living standards of the 99 percent have steadily declined, while the wealth of the 1 percent has risen. It is now a city of stark contrasts. Seventy billionaires live in the city as well as several thousand additional millionaires. At the same time, one-third live below the poverty line. Twenty percent earn $9 to $11 an hour, while unemployment is back up to just under 9 percent, higher than the national rate.

Conditions for the 400,000 people living in public housing are acknowledged to be abominable. Housing costs are a major problem for most, as many people must spend 50 percent of their income on housing. Hospitals in poorer neighborhoods are being closed. Public education is under attack with many schools being closed, charter schools pushed into public school buildings with staff being reduced. These are especially sharp conditions for the 70 percent of the city who are racially and nationally oppressed people.

The economy and the politics of the city has been run by and for the developers, real estate interests, Wall Street, and insurance industries. They seek to feed off the public trough and radically increase their profits, while driving the poorest section, especially the racially and nationally oppressed, out of the city. Thus we see a decline in the oldest racially-oppressed communities, African American and Puerto Rican, who no longer can afford to live in the city, though they still remain very important populations in the city. Newer racially oppressed move in by doubling up with relatives. Public spending goes toward the top 1 percent, tourists and some in the upper to middle income strata, while services and conditions for the poor are made ever worse.

But with elections, a different direction can begin. After all, the population of the city is heavily registered Democratic and Working Families Party; it has nearly a million trade unionists, and is heavily people of color. It has a significant women's equality movement, and large numbers of students and other youth, all of whom, given a chance, vote even more in a democratic direction than does most of the rest of the country. If these class and social forces substantially unite, campaign and vote together, candidates seeking to move in a democratic, progressive direction, can begin to impose that direction.

The Republican candidates for mayor (and the Independence Party), Joseph Lhota and Adolfo Carrion, represent more of the same and maybe even worse. There are four significant Democratic Party candidates. Unless one of them receives 40% there will be a runoff of the two highest. Probably both the first and second primary election rounds will be September.

It is widely agreed that the politics of the four range from Christine Quinn, toward the right, to Bill DeBlasio, to William Thompson, to John Liu on the left. Council Speaker Quinn's politics are similar to Michael Bloomberg's but still better than any of the non-Democrats. Yet her election would hardly change the direction of the city. While appealing to some because she would be the first woman and first openly gay mayor, her positions on issues go against their interests. She continually slows down and compromises all pro-working families legislation, such as holding up a vote on sick leave. She joins the Republicans in pledging to reappoint Ray Kelly as police commissioner, despite his stop-and-frisk policy. She has strong real estate developer financing.

Liu is widely considered the most consistent person towards the left. He calls for an $11 an hour minimum wage, and calls for ending stop and frisk entirely. But his poll numbers are the lowest of the four, 9 percent, probably because of the smear campaign run against him around apparent fund raising violations by a couple people on his campaign. The government admits they cannot indict him. Liu is an excellent campaigner but virtually no one thinks he can win.

William Thompson was the president of the Board of Education, and a good one, before Bloomberg made the board a department of the city government. He was then comptroller and ran against Bloomberg who narrowly beat him. Thompson calls for ending the present educational system and going to one that is responsive to the parents and teachers, and opposes the closings of the schools. He calls for firing the leadership of public housing. As an African American, he is sensitive to the issues of his and the other racially oppressed communities, while seeking the support of liberal whites, such as the city's large Jewish community.

The other Democratic candidate, who along with Thompson has a shot at coming in second after Quinn, is DeBlasio. He is the current public advocate, and tries to appeal both to moderates and liberals, without taking a clear-cut position either way on key issues. He presents himself as a champion of small business and a friend of labor. His record with regard to big development projects is that he begins as a supporter of the developers and then moves as opposition builds.

Both Liu, who is the comptroller and is Chinese, and Thompson, promise to sign contracts with public workers and opposed Bloomberg on his anti-labor policies.

The possibility for a turn in direction also depends on the outcome of the city council elections, where there is a substantial Progressive Caucus led by Melissa Mark Viverito and Brad Lander. Viverito will seek election to the powerful post of speaker and has a real shot at it. There are also progressives running with serious shots at victory, such as Letisha James for public advocate and Ken Thompson for Brooklyn district attorney. Robert Jackson is running for Manhattan Borough president. All three are African American.

Serious relief for the lives of the poor and middle income people requires big funding at the expense of the big corporation, the millionaires and billionaires, and that needs political will. Victory for a turn in direction will depend on the activism and unity of the labor movement, the many organizations in the communities of the racially and nationally oppressed, women, youth and a section of the white liberal community. Turnout will be exceptionally important in the initial round and possible second round of primaries, which usually have small turnouts. Thompson was able to strongly challenge Bloomberg in 2009 because of just such a coalition, which he built both in the primaries and in the general election, starting from his African American base.

New Yorkers join in taking back May Day

noreply@blogger.com (Libero Della Piana) — Thu, 05 May 2011 20:16:00 +0000

By Gabe Falsetta

Reprinted from People's World

The sun was shinning as 10,000 New Yorkers celebrated International Workers Day last Sunday, May 1. They joined millions around the world who have celebrated that day each year on a holiday made in the USA 125 years ago when Chicago workers rallying for the eight hour day were put to death by a judge in the service of business oligarchs.

The trade unionists, immigrant workers and community groups joined together in Foley Square, downtown Manhattan to send a message to Wall Street that workers are taking back a historic day that for too long was celebrated more around the world than here in the country of its birth.

Kevin Lynch, organizing director of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Local 338 put it this way, "May Day is our day in every sense of the word."

There was a festive mood as people connected with their brothers and sisters who make this city work. The New York Labor Chorus sang Solidarity Forever.

There is a special ring to it when thousands of working people join in. Diana from Unite Here's Local 100cafeteria workers made her feelings known; "I'm here to support the Teachers and all the unions who work hard for our children. And now the city is making cuts that will hurt all of us. May Day is a day for all of us to come together."

It was clear that the attack by Wisconsin's Gov. Walker on public service workers and their unions was utmost on everyone's mind.

"I'm upset about the attack on labor," said Frank Farcas, a retired member of DC 37's Local 1579. "The epicenter is in Wisconsin but it is happening around the country, threatening collective bargaining rights and setting labor back 50 to 75 years. I'm worried about the future of our children."

About an hour and a half into the rally, the ranks were swelled by a feeder march from Union Square. Many immigrant rights organizations such as Make the Road and The New York Immigration Coalition joined the unions they see as their natural partners in this fight.

Everyone seemed to understand that the fight is not an easy one. They believe the right wing of the Republican Party and the newly elected Tea Party members of Congress are bent on destroying the labor movement and that they are up against the tactics the capitalist class has always used - divide and conquer.

Juan Negron, a union member from Brooklyn, said, "I am here to support American workers and workers around the world. They are taking too much away from us, they woke the sleeping giant and we are fighting back."

A 20-year member of the Laborers, Samuel Araveytha said, "I am here to protest laws against immigrants."

Tim Sheer, a UAW Local 1981 National Writers Union member, seemed to sum up the day: "The rich and powerful are taking more and more out of my pocket and the people I work with. They are taking too much of the pie. New York has the greatest disparity of wealth, and New York is a union town."

A highlight of the day was the speech by Arlene Holt Baker, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO.

"We will build an America our children need, together," she declared. "Together we will demand the passage of the Dream Act so all children can reach their aspirations. As one we will work for a new day when no one, no one remains in the shadows, when the circumstances of birth do not, do not my sisters and brothers determine your fate."

Sonia Ivany, president of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement said, "Together we send a strong and unified message to Albany. The hard fought gains will not be reduced. Together on this May Day we all come together. New York, Wisconsin united! The right for every single worker in this nation to have the right to organize unions. To have the right to collective bargaining and a living wage. United we are moving forward."

Photo: Elena Mora/PW

Communist Party Statement on statewide elections

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 16:46:00 +0000

The 2010 elections:

Strengthen the fight for peace, democracy and equality!

The National Situation

We’ve got our work cut out for us.

Since the 2008 election of Barack Obama, the extreme right has gone on a rampage, especially with the formation of the so-called Tea Parties, perhaps the most openly racist “movement” this country has seen in decades. While polls show that they represent a very small portion of American working people, they have an undue amount of influence, as they are supported by, even created by, much of the mainstream media and the Republican Party, the tools of extreme sections of monopoly capital.

Labor and the people’s movements have won some amazing victories under the new balance of forces that was ushered in with Obama’s election, especially health care reform and the stimulus package of 2009—but much more needs to be done. Every good initiative by the President, by Congress and by the people’s movement has run up against immediate obstruction by the minority Republican Party. The recent attempts to deny extensions of unemployment compensation are but one example of their callous disregard for the well being of America’s working people.

This is why the 2010 elections are of historic importance: we could consolidate the victory of 2008 and move forward in a pro-people and anti-racist direction, or we could see the beginning of a big step backwards. In order to improve the economic situation and the situation of working people overall, and to beat back the Republican-Tea Party offensive, we need to ensure that the Republicans do not pick up seats in the midterm elections and to further turn the Congress against them. While the Democrats are far from perfect, the biggest obstacle to progress it the Republican extremists’ bloc.

The Situation in New York State

Using the current economic crisis as a pretext, monopoly capital—the corporations, the big developers and so on—is on a rampage to break unions and to decisively shift power even further away from working people towards Wall Street. Here in New York, their first line of attack has been to cut services and, as we’ve seen in the budget fights and the attempt to privatize schools under the guise of creating more charters, to break the public sector unions.

The assault on public workers is an assault on all workers: they hope to divide public and private working people in order to weaken the working class fightback overall.

While monopoly capital has a home in both the New York Democratic and Republican parties, the Republicans are leading the most vicious assault. And while there are Democrats in our state leadership who’ve taken some terrible positions, the legislative Democrats have by and large been the group that has been most responsive to the needs of working people. Senate Democrats, for example, were able to restore $600 million in education funding, and more in health care funding, to the budget. The prospects of overriding the gubernatorial veto would be much greater were there far fewer Republicans.

Consequently, as bad as Governor David Paterson has been, our main enemy is at the present time still the Republican Party, the preferred party of Bloomberg, Wall Street and the big developers. In the upcoming elections, working people have a great stake in ensuring that there are more Democrats and less Republicans in office.

Andrew Cuomo and the state Democratic ticket

Still, there’s absolutely nothing to be excited about when it comes to the Democratic candidate for governor, Andrew Cuomo. He’s been arguing for exactly the same business-friendly, anti-worker policies as David Paterson. Further, his shocking insensitivity to the African-American, Latino, Asian-American and Afro-Caribbean communities is despicable. How can it be that, in a state where millions of African Americans and Latinos live and contribute, there is not a single member of either of these communities on the statewide Democratic ticket?

The only possible response to this is condemnation.

The way forward in the fight against racism

While we understand the indignation felt by the African-American and other communities, we don’t consider the creation of the new Freedom Party, co-chaired by City Council member Charles Barron, to be a viable tactic to fight racism. We believe that history has shown that the only way to defeat racism is for all working people, Black, white, Latino, Asian, male and female, old and young, unionized and unorganized, to unite together in common struggle. We see the anti-union posturing and chauvinism that has come from some of the state Democratic leadership as two sides of the same coin. You can’t defeat one without the other. Consequently, you can’t win workers’ rights without all sections of the working class, and you can’t defeat racism without the participation of white working people.

When united, we win; divided we lose.

Council member Barron has said that African Americans have been used by Democrats. It is true that the African-American community has overwhelmingly supported Democrats in all of the most recent elections, including between 80-90 percent support for Spitzer in the previous gubernatorial elections. And we’re sure Barron is right to suggest that Cuomo is banking on the mature political sense of the African-American and Afro-Caribbean people of New York to vote, despite the obvious shortcomings and chauvinism inherent in his campaign, against the Republican candidate.

We see the answer to this differently, however, and also take note of the fact that no other leaders of the African American community have as of yet endorsed Council member Barron’s proposals. We have to ask the question of how the working class, the racially and nationally oppressed, women and youth can build up the movement to push the state Democrats to offer better choices. We’ve seen that, in communities across the state, we’ve been able to do so: all one has to do is to look at the progressive, labor-oriented, Black, Latino and Asian city council members. There are many in the Democratic Party, and even more in its orbit, who are part of this fight: the labor movement, especially the transport workers, the service workers, SEIU 32BJ and 1199, and the teachers; organizations of racially and nationally oppressed people; women’s rights organizations—all of these groups especially, as well as the African-American and Latino Democratic clubs, the progressive Democratic clubs, the peace movement and so on. This movement must defeat the Republicans in November, but at the same time it has to strengthen the anti-corporate, anti-racist currents pressuring the state Democratic Party. Many of these important progressive forces are working within the Working Families Party.

In doing all this, these forces help to build their own independence.

We should throw ourselves into the fight with the optimism of knowing that, despite Cuomo’s shortcomings, we can build the movement stronger and better, and the November elections can be a huge step forward in defeating the anti-worker, racist extremists and building a broader and more united movement for peace, equality, civil rights and democracy, both at the state and national levels.

State Committee

New York State Communist Party

Islamic center has broad support in new york

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:49:00 +0000

To see original article, click here.

Some media reports give the impression that Islamic fanatics have won the right to build a mosque near Ground Zero, over the wishes of the vast majority of New Yorkers. But the truth is far different. A self-described moderate Islamic group hoping to promote tolerance and diversity, and to do its part to help rebuild the community injured by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, is hoping to build a community center-and people of all faiths are supporting them.

The controversy arose when the Cordoba Initiative, which aims at "improving Muslim-West relations" announced it would renovate a building - which is already used as overflow for a nearby mosque - into an Islamic community center.

"This is a center like the 92nd Street Y or the Jewish Community Center," Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative said at a press conference. "It is meant to have programs to serve the community, to serve the Muslim and the non-Muslim community. This is also our expression of the 99.999 percent of Muslims all over the world, including in America, who have condemned and continue to condemn terrorism."

An assembly of extreme-right wing Republicans, Tea Party members and others influenced by their rhetoric has denounced the project because it is to be built near to the site of the 9/11 attacks. They claim it will be a "breeding ground" for terrorists and demand that the government intervene to stop its construction.

As many point out, despite the Republican-right hype, the center isn't actually that close to the old World Trade Center site. In a huge city like New York, a few blocks is essentially a world away.

And, said Feisal, "We condemn terrorism. We recognize it exists in our faith community, but we're committed to eradicating it." He appealed for the help of non-Muslims, saying, "We cannot do this by ourselves. We need your support, we need your cooperation. We need coalitions of Muslims and non-Muslims together to achieve the common objectives that we as patriotic Americans want to achieve."

People of all political and religious persuasions have voiced support, including Christians, Jews, and others, even outspoken atheists. These disparate groups all argue that, no matter how offended some may feel, there is no basis for interfering in the Bill of Rights guarantee that the government must not discriminate based on a person or group's religious affiliation.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of the Jewish American group J Street, said the fight over the Islamic center is, in many ways, a battle over the soul of the United States. "The principle at stake in the Cordoba House controversy goes to the heart of American democracy and the value we place on freedom of religion," he said.

J Street collected 10,000 signatures "to counter the opposition" to the plans "to build a community center in lower Manhattan modeled after Jewish Community Centers and Y's all over the country."

New York's Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in an August 3 speech, noted that the building OS private property and "the owners have a right to use it as a house of worship" and said, "The government has no right whatsoever to deny that right."

"Part of being a New Yorker is living with your neighbors in mutual respect and tolerance," Bloomberg said. "It was exactly that spirit of openness and acceptance that was attacked on 9/11."

New York City's progressive Comptroller John Liu voiced his support for the project, saying, "The development of both the mosque and the center gained strong support of the local community board earlier this month. Both are dedicated to promoting education and understanding, and intended to help bridge the divide and unify New York."

While those raising a hue and cry over the project say the Bill of Rights religious liberty protection must be suspended so as not to offend families of 9/11 victims, many survivors disagree.

Donna Marsh O'Connor, spokesperson for September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, said, "This building will serve as an emblem for the rest of the world that Americans stand against violence, intolerance and overt acts of racism and that we recognize that the evil acts of a few must never damn the innocent."

Lunatics protesting mosque aren't so different from bin Laden

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:54:00 +0000

An angry mob showed up in lower Manhattan to protest the opening of an "extremist Islamic center that aims to mock the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, and create an army of jihadists who'll wage a battle that will eventually, if successful, destroy the America."

Sound far-fetched? That's because it is.

The above statement is pure fabrication. Pure fabrication - with the exception of the angry mob. They actually did show up.

Egged on by right-wing talk radio and the rest of the tea party crowd, these people descended to protest a "mosque" they perceived to be too close to Ground Zero.

Every mosque, they argued, is a "breeding ground for terrorists, as Islam is based in cruelty and terror and its logical outcome is the fight against modernity, democracy and tolerance."

Further, given that the 9/11 hijackers were Islamic, the hate-talkers say, the "mosque" must certainly be a slap in the face to those who perished. (Whether or not this would be an insult to the several hundred Muslims who also died there was never explicitly said.)

What's being built two block away from Ground Zero isn't even a mosque at all, but a community center based on Islamic values. According to the website for Cordoba House, the center's name, the mission will "[promote] tolerance, reflecting the rich diversity of New York City."

While these are likely not values appreciated by the frothing demonstrators, they are a far cry from mocking 9/11 victims.

Then there's the concept that if people of one religion do something wicked to some particular group or in some certain place, it naturally follows that the presence of that religion near the people or area where the atrocities occurred is somehow an insult. But except in the case of Islam, no one in America believes that. If that were the case, there should be no Christian churches near any synagogue, given the horrible persecution that Jews have experienced for centuries at the hands of Christians. But there are synagogues and churches side-by-side all around this city.

And, of course, Catholic churches are allowed not only to be near, but also to run, elementary schools.

Most nakedly obvious is the blatant bigotry against Islam. Those protesting the "mosque" argue that it is a religion of hate based on violence. A fair reading of the Koran will reveal some truly ugly verses-but the same can be said of the Bible. There are acts of genocide, incest, hatred, collective punishment, and so on in both the Old (Torah) and New Testaments.

But millions upon millions of religious people, Jewish, Christian and Islamic, base their faith not on this or that terrible verse, but on a perception that their preferred holy book tells them to love their neighbor.

Sure, Osama bin Laden calls himself a Muslim, but Pat Robertson (who told America we deserved 9/11) calls himself a Christian. In Israel, the hateful settlers take the Torah as their basis, but so do the progressive and democratic sections of the Zionist movement.

Just as most Christians and Jews are not extremists, neither are most Muslims. In fact, the very center being protested has as its aim to "provide a place where individuals, regardless of their backgrounds, will find a center of learning, art and culture; and most importantly, a center guided by Islamic values in their truest form - compassion, generosity, and respect for all."

Compassion, generosity and respect for all: These are values common to billions of Muslims, Christians and Jews, as well as any nonbeliever, Communist or true progressive.

Perhaps, most chilling of all is what these demonstrators were demanding: the government to stop the construction of a community center specifically because of the religion of those building it. In short, they wanted the suspension of the Bill of Rights.

Is there anything more chilling than thousands of people demonstrating against fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution?

Osama bin Laden and his thugs wanted to destroy the west, particularly the United States. They failed miserably. Only seven years after 9/11, the American people elected the first ever African American president, a man who grew up in a Muslim country and whose middle name, Hussein, is the same as that of two current or recent Middle Eastern rulers.

There is a huge democratic movement in this country, with labor at its core, that is white, African American, Asian, Latino, Arab and that unites people of all faiths or lack thereof. Its aim is to continue the very American tradition of the fight for peace, equality, democracy, civil rights and freedom-including of religion.

In an ironic twist, though many of them sported American flags, those protesting downtown had much less in common with this movement-and much more in common with bin Laden.

Forget budget cuts; tax the rich

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:52:00 +0000

By Dan Margolis, for the NY State Communist Party

Reading the news, one could be forgiven for believing the false notion that there is too little money in the state of New York. The state budget - due on April 1 - still hasn't been passed, as Albany can't come to an agreement on how to plug the $5 billion deficit. Instead, the legislature has been passing a series of week-long budget extenders to keep the government running.

But while the effects of the crisis are real, the perceived lack of wealth is not.

A federal court struck down Gov. David Paterson's plan to furlough state workers and delay their pay raises, and now he is now calling for thousands of layoffs. Paterson openly questions whether or not an agreement made between labor and the state in 2009, which says that there would be no layoffs in return for big pension concessions from labor, is binding. Even if it can't be overridden, the governor is laying the groundwork for the layoffs to take place as soon as the agreement expires.

On top of that, many in the state Legislature are working to slash funding to education, aid to cities and towns, health care and other areas. In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has taken advantage of the situation and is pushing to reduce the city's workforce by nearly 4 percent. After widespread protest, the mayor was forced to retreat on his plan to axe several thousand teachers, but he is now threatening their planned pay raises.

All across the city and state, the effects of the budget crisis are being felt. Even the New York Public Library has been forced to send out appeals to its supporters urging them to get in touch with their local representative to halt the mayor's proposal for the biggest funding cut to the library system in the city's history. The transit system is planning to lay off hundreds of station agents (there would have been more had a judge not intervened) and to shut down train lines and bus routes.

On the surface, the deficits seem huge. The state is short $9.2 billion, and the corresponding figure for the city is $4.9 billion. In addition, the MTA, a public authority, faces an $800 million shortfall.

What to do?

Of course, there are a number of ways to reduce wasteful spending without cutting services important to working people, and a number of watchdog groups and unions have pointed them out.

But the money is there. Instead of making draconian cuts, the state should simply raise revenue.

Let's put the deficit into perspective: If you add up the city and state deficit, and throw in the MTA to boot, you come up with a total of $14.9 billion. Our mayor, who is presiding over the gutting of people's living standards, is a billionaire. So much of a billionaire, in fact, that he could pay off all of the city and state debts and still have more than $2 billion left over. To put that number into perspective, Bloomberg would then, if he lives to be 108 years old, still have, not accounting for interest, $50 million per year to live off of.

And there are more like Bloomberg: According to a 2008 issue of Forbes, there are 70 other billionaires in the city limits, and they have an average net value of $3.3 billion. These 70 New Yorkers - out of nearly 8.5 million and not including the mayor - control $231 billion alone.

On top of all that, this is the home of Wall Street and its huge firms like Goldman Sachs and others, and countless multi-millionaires.

Compared to all this wealth, the $15 billion the state needs to sustain services to working people seems like a trifle.

Aside from the pressure that monopoly capital can put on the city and state governments, there is simply no reason for New York to face layoffs or cuts to social services. Perhaps more than any other state in the country, we can, if the political will is there, balance the budget - or go further and enact our own statewide stimulus plan.

A small surcharge on the billionaires, a stock transfer tax (specifically tailored to exempt 401k and other pension savings), ensuring that the Fair Share tax law doesn't sunset: all of these things could solve our budget problem.

A planned demonstration by AFSCME District Council 37, which represents 125,000 city public workers, as well as a number of other rallies and campaigns to get people to contact their representatives, are all steps in the right direction.

What's needed is the reemergence of the coalition that enacted the Fair Share Tax Reform a couple of years ago, a broad alliance of all New York City labor, the Working Families Party, the African American, Latino, Asian American communities, religious groups and others.

Fight for public parks in NY

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:50:00 +0000

By Elena Mora

Most mornings, I take a 45-minute walk around my Bronx neighborhood. My route takes me past Harris Field, where my kids played baseball with the Mosholu-Montefiore Little League. My oldest played there for seven seasons, and I have lots of good memories of Harris, of sitting in my portable chair, rooting for my kids and schmoozing with the other parents.

Unfortunately Harris Field has been closed for two years now, and from the looks of the place (construction fences closing it off, dirt and rocks everywhere), no one will be playing baseball or any other sport there anytime soon.

What's the problem? In a nutshell, lack of money.

In the spring of 2008, a renovation project began at Harris, with a budget of $6.6 million, which soon went up to $8.7 million. However, the price tag skyrocketed to $15 million, after high levels of lead were found in the soil.

Given the budget crisis facing the city, and the priorities of the Bloomberg administration, it's hard to imagine how they will find money for a park in the Bronx, despite the fact that Harris was a very busy place. In addition to the Mosholu-Montefiore sports program, the Bronx High School of Science, DeWitt Clinton High and others shared its six fields.

For the past two years, M-M has had to cut its Little League program from 1000 to 500 kids, and the high schools have scrambled for space. Unfortunately, playing field scarcity is a common story here in NYC- unless you have money, as when a group of private schools brokered a deal with the city to reserve for themselves the choice times on Randalls Island fields in exchange for paying part of the renovation costs.

What's happening at Harris is just a tiny part of the catastrophe that's in the works when it comes to the public places where working-class people relax, play and enjoy nature.

According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, state parks from coast to coast are threatened with deep funding cuts - in fact, they list "state parks" as #1 of the most endangered sites.

This year nearly 30 states have proposed or enacted such cuts and a recent survey estimates as many as 400 state parks could close. And city parks are in as bad or worse shape.

Here in New York, Governor Paterson recently came up with a cynical proposal for saving New York's parks - cutting the budget of the Environmental Protection Fund. Needless to say, environmental organizations are outraged at this King Solomon-like choice.

Is there no money for parks? The Central Park Conservancy (a private foundation that runs Manhattan's Central Park) raises 85% of its $25 million annual operating budget from private donors, and pays its president $364,000 a year. Richard Hammond, the CEO of the recently opened Highline park in lower Manhattan receives $250,000 a year.

When I read this, I thought about the fact that Paterson and gubernatorial hopeful Andrew Cuomo have both come out against the State Assembly's "millionaire tax" -- a 1 percentage point increase on millionaires, and another 0.75 points on those earning more than $5 million per year.

Dean Baker, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, has estimated that a small tax of a quarter of 1 percent imposed on the sale of a wide range of securities would yield $100 billion to $150 billion.

As the Central Park Conservancy slogan says, "You gotta have park." Unless we believe that Manhattanites "gotta have park" more than people in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, then funding must be found to keep all of our parks open and cared for. Unless we believe that the students at exclusive private schools in Manhattan have more right to sports than kids in the Bronx, funding must be found to quickly clean up and renovate Harris Park.

So yes, tax those millionaires (the "half-millionaires" too). Tax those Wall Street bonuses, most of which were given as stock transfers to avoid income tax. Find the money, because we all gotta have park.

NYC rally in solidarity with U of Puerto Rico students

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:48:00 +0000

On the rainy afternoon of May 18, hundreds converged in front of the Manhattan office of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA), The group, made up of political, student and community representatives, came to demonstrate against the budget cuts to the University Of Puerto Rico, a public university, and against the massive wave of lay-offs which workers are currently suffering in Puerto Rico.

The rally also honored UPR, a public university, as an example of a most productive higher education system which contributes to the social, scientific and economic development of Puerto Rican and US societies.

Public school teacher Norma Perez declared, "The decision of the Luis Fortuño government to continue the wave of massive lay-offs and budget cuts to public education is a social and economic act of barbarism adding to the deepening crisis, increasing the process of basic services' privatization". She added that the students in Puerto Rico "are getting a raw deal as the university administration tries to eliminate the tuition exception for athletes and artists, among other students of high academic achievement." Perez is an alumna of the UPR who received a sports scholarship to help pay for her studies. Eric Ramos, a representative of the Partido Independentista Puertorriqueno (PIP) in NYC, declared, "We live in times of economic crisis in the colony as well as in the US. Instead of imposing taxes on domestic and foreign corporations the government administration prefers to eliminate public services to the people." According to Ramos, this only makes things worse when "the authorities prefer evasive styles and punishment instead of dialogue with negotiations."

Marisel Hernandez, representative of the Latino and Latin American Students Organization in NYC declared, "The students present clear, precise democratic demands, however the government resorts to intimidation." Hernandez denounced the mobilization of the Police Special Forces, the eviction of the students in university residencies and the denial of water and food to the students inside campuses.

The demonstrators distributed information to people coming out of their work places in the area. The Network in Support of Workers in Puerto Rico from NYC petitioned the government to return to the table for dialogue and negotiation to reach agreements that will satisfy the UPR students in order to end this conflict at the most prominent academic institution in Puerto Rico.

At the end of the day, Perez remarked, "The students of the UPR with their actions present Puerto Rico's best face to the entire world."

The Network in Support of Workers in Puerto Rico/La Red de Apoyo a los (as) Trabajadores (as) en Puerto Rico is a coordinating body of political, community, students' groups and individuals concerned about conditions in Puerto Rico today.

Save public libraries!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:45:00 +0000

By Elena Mora

Full disclosure: I LOVE books. I love the way they look stacked on shelves and scattered on my bedside table. I love the way the pages feel; I love the way they smell.

Ipso facto, I love the library.

When I was home on maternity leave with twins more than a decade ago, my sanity was saved by the public library system, which in New York is especially wonderful since you can order any book you want online, and it will be delivered to the branch of your choice. (Even without that I would have benefited from the proximity of my local branch - two blocks away - and the fact that everything there is free, a big plus when your family has expanded from three to five overnight!)

I go to the library at least once a week, either the branch near my home in the Bronx, or near my job in Manhattan, and both are always PACKED. I mean, seriously, at the Manhattan branch, I frequently have to wait on line to check out books. And the Bronx branch is always full of people, from kids to teenagers to senior citizens.

So I do not pretend to be unbiased, and in fact, I was outraged that, as the NY Times reported last week, "public libraries are always among the first city services to be threatened with substantial cuts."

Now, billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg's budget has other outrageous cuts, all of which have in common that they make working people pay or suffer for the economic crisis. Proposed to be closed are 16 daycare centers, 50 senior centers and 20 firehouses. Parks, pools and beaches will be shuttered.

But the cuts proposed to the libraries are as cruel as the others, and I wondered, why are they "always among the first?" Is the idea that libraries don't provide essential services?

In fact, public libraries are absolutely essential, to a democratic society, and to the overall wellbeing of working people.

As Margalit Susser, president of the union that represents Queens library employees put it, "We're more than a library, we are part of the community."

Libraries are not just about books - people go there to read newspapers and periodicals, for movies and music, for classes and concerts. And millions use the internet at the library.

A recent study by the University of Washington found that "low-income adults are more likely to rely on the public library as their sole access to computers and the Internet than any other income group," and that "people relied on library technology to find work, apply for college, secure government benefits, learn about critical medical treatments, and connect with their communities."

Libraries are community centers, hosting cultural events and offering classes. They teach English to immigrant adults.

Of course, the two key (and beautiful) words to remember when it comes to libraries are "public" and "free."

Which is why libraries should be fought for as hard as we fight for everything else that is threatened by the economic crisis. And by the way, needless to say, Bloomberg's cuts to the libraries include lots of layoffs -- close to 1000 workers -- many of whom are women.

Christian Zabriskie, from Urban Librarians Unite, said, " These budget cuts will destroy the public libraries in this city as we know them, marginalize our impact on our communities and deprive our citizens of information, culture and entertainment."

Bloomberg, the NY Public Library and Lenin

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:22:00 +0000

By now, most New Yorkers have heard details of Mayor Bloomberg's budget and the draconian cuts it would impose. Instead of taxing the rich, "our" mayor wants to cut services. The most infamous gash is the proposed laying-off of nearly 7,000 teachers, but Bloomberg's knives reach far and wide. For example, here's what the NYPL has to say about the cuts:

Don't Close the Book on Libraries - Act Now The New York Public Library is facing a potential $37 million cut in City funding. This is the harshest cut in our history and comes at a time when more New Yorkers than ever are using the Library, many with no alternative for the services we offer. We are preparing for the possibility of closing 10 library branches, a reduction of staff by 36% percent, 25,300 fewer programs and classes for kids and adults, and a cut of 6-day service to 4 days across the NYPL system.

Our public library, now under assault, is known throughout the world. So much so, in fact, that it was used by the Russian revolutionary VI Lenin as an example of what can be achieved in a democratic society. Here, in full, is what Lenin had to say about libraries, specifically, the NYPL:

There are quite a number of rotten prejudices current in the Western countries of which Holy Mother Russia is free. They assume there, for instance, that huge public libraries containing hundreds of thousands and millions of volumes, should certainly not be reserved only for the handful of scholars or would-be scholars that uses them. Over there they have set themselves the strange, incomprehensible and barbaric aim of making these gigantic, boundless libraries available, not to a guild of scholars, professors and other such specialists, but to the masses, to the crowd, to the mob!

What a desecration of the libraries! What an absence of the “law and order” we are so justly proud of. Instead of regulations, discussed and elaborated by a dozen committees of civil servants inventing hundreds of formalities and obstacles to the use of books, they see to it that even children can make use of the rich collections; that readers can read publicly-owned books at home; they regard as the pride and glory of a public library, not the number of rarities it contains, the number of sixteenth-century editions or tenth-century manuscripts, but the extentamong the people, the number of new readers enrolled, the speed with which the demand for any book is met, the number of books issued to be read at home, the number of children attracted to reading and to the use of the library.... These queer prejudices are widespread in the Western states, and we must be glad that those who keep watch and ward over us protect us with care and circumspection from the influence of these prejudices, protect our rich public libraries from the mob, from the hoi polloi! to which books are distributed

I have before me the report of the New York Public Library for 1911.

That year the Public Library in New York was moved from two old buildings to new premises erected by the city. The total number of books is now about two million. It so happened that the first book asked for when the reading-room opened its doors was in Russian. It was a work by N. Grot, The Moral Ideals of Our Times. The request for the book was handed in at eight minutes past nine in the morning. The book was delivered to the reader at nine fifteen.

In the course of the year the library was visited by 1,658,376 people. There were 246,950 readers using the reading-room and they took out 911,891 books.

This, however, is only a small part of the book circulation effected by the library. Only a few people can visit the library. The rational organisation of educational work is measured by the number of books issued to be read at home, by the conveniences available to the majority of the population.

In three boroughs of New York—Manhatten, Bronx and Richmond—the New York Public Library has forty-two branches and will soon have a forty-third (the total population of the three boroughs is almost three million). The aim that is constantly pursued is to have a branch of the Public Library within three-quarters of a verst, i.e., within ten minutes’ walk of the house of every inhabitant, the branch library being the centre of all kinds of institutions and establishments for public education.

Almost eight million (7,914,882 volumes) were issued to readers at home, 400,000 more than in 1910. To each hundred members of the population of all ages and both sexes, 267 books were issued for reading at home in the course of the year.

Each of the forty-two branch libraries not only provides for the use of reference books in the building and the issue of books to be read at home, it is also a place for evening lectures, for public meetings and for rational entertainment.

The New York Public Library contains about 15,000 books in oriental languages, about 20,000 in Yiddish and about 16,000 in the Slav languages. In the main reading-room there are about 20,000 books standing on open shelves for general use.

The New York Public Library has opened a special, central, reading-room for children, and similar institutions are gradually being opened at all branches. The librarians do everything for the children’s convenience and answer their questions. The number of books children took out to read at home was 2,859,888, slightly under three million (more than a third of the total). The number of children visiting the reading-room was 1,120,915.

As far as losses are concerned—the New York Public Library assesses the number of books lost at 70–80–90 per 100,000 issued to be read at home.

Such is the way things are done in New York. And in Russia?

How can we let this institution, which inspired and inspires people around the world, fall victim to Bloomberg's budget scissors? A fight is necessary. Here's what the NYPL suggests:

Here is how you can help right now:

We appreciate your support and will keep you informed about the status of Library funding in the next few weeks.

We agree fully that everyone should do the above things. But further, we need to demand that no cuts be made to any service on which working people depend. There are 60 billionaires in this city. Bloomberg himself could, out of his own pocket, fill the entire deficit and still have more than $10 billion left over. While working people, especially young people, whose education is under assault in school and at the libraries, face all of these cuts on top of the foreclosure and unemployment crisis, the billionaires, with Bloomberg as their leader, refuse to do their fair share.

This is an outrage.

Let's work with labor and other allies, including in the City Council and the state legislature, to stop the cuts, and further demand that there be fair and adequate taxes on the rich!

Applause for Governor Paterson for his Leadership on Immigration

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:00:00 +0000

From the National Latino Congreso:

Latino Groups Praise Creation of Pardon Review Panel for Immigrant New Yorkers Facing Deportation as a Sensible and Humane Approach to Local Problems Created by our Broken Immigration System

The National Latino Congreso (NLC), the paramount consortium of federal, state, and local Latino civic and leadership in America, today applauded New York State Governor Paterson for his recent announcement that he would create a panel to assist him in reviewing pardon applications of legal immigrants facing deportation as a result of old or minor criminal convictions. Governor Paterson's action is a response to our national government's aggressive enforcement of immigration laws, which often expels immigrants without due process and any kind of consideration to the person's contributions to society or whether they will be torn away from their United States citizen children or spouse.

"In the absence of progressive national immigration reform, Gov. Paterson is taking a courageous and just step to mitigate what is clearly a deeply flawed system" stated Lillian Rodriguez-Lopez, President of the Hispanic Federation. "This action by Governor Paterson will restore some sense of fairness and justice for immigrant New Yorkers, and help keep families together."

"Governor Paterson's action comes as a welcomed sign of real leadership, especially in light of what has taken place in Arizona, said Antonio Gonzalez, President of the William C. Velazquez Institute. "We will be calling on other state executives to follow his lead."

"We are deeply grateful to Governor Paterson for his common sense response to the despair felt by many immigrants in his state and across our nation, declared Oscar Chacon, Executive Director of NALACC. "What this once again reminds us is that enacting the right reforms is the only way out of the current national environment of hostility, racism and growing hate crimes against Latinos and immigrants in the United States."

###

Why were there separate May Day rallies

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 05 May 2010 17:44:00 +0000

By Pat Fry

Though the New York Times did not print a word of it, there were two May Day rallies and marches in New York City last Saturday, one estimated at 15,000 – 20,000 in front of downtown Manhattan’s Federal Building at Foley Square, and the other estimated to be a third less in size assembling a couple miles away in Union Square.

For the first time since the anti-communist derailment of May Day in the Cold War days of the late 1940s, labor unions officially sponsored a May Day March and Rally – a celebration that began with the Chicago general strike of workers for the 8 hour day May 1, 1886. Under the banner of “Labor and Immigrant Rights and Jobs for All,” the Foley Square rally represented the mobilization efforts of numerous unions – AFSCME District Councils, AFT/United Federation of Teachers, Professional Staff Congress, CWA District 1 and CWA Local 1180, IBT Joint Council 16 as well as 5 Teamster locals, NY State United Teachers, two locals of the RWDSU/UFCW, SEIU 32BJ and SEIU 1199 UHE, Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU, SEIU Workers United, the Laborers LIUNA Local 10, 78 and 79, LIUNA Mason Tenders District Council, UAW Region 9A, the UAW National Writers Union, and the NYC Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (NY LCLAA).

The keynote at the rally was given by Arlene Holt Baker, Executive Vice President of the AFL CIO, and the highest ranking labor leader of color in the country. In her remarks, which have been widely circulated by the AFL-CIO, she called upon the U.S. Department of Justice to take immediate legal action to stop the Arizona law from implementing its “ill-guided and unconstitutional law.” She urged Present Obama to publicly oppose and terminate all programs – including collaborations between state and local law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that result in racial profiling.

In addition, numerous organizations of immigrants rights, and workers centers were sponsors, including the NY Immigration Coalition, the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, NY Civic Participation Project, Sociedad Hondurena Activa de Nueva York, Cabrini Immigrant Services, NY Taxi Workers Alliance, the Domestic Workers Union, the NAACP, and religious organizations including the Bronx Muslim Center Mass, Council on American-Islamic Relations New York, Islamic Center of Jackson Heights, Labor Religion Coalition of Greater NY, American Friends Service Committee. It was an impressive center-left coalition and represented some of most critical sectors of the social justice movement today. The immigrant workers that rallied at Foley Square were organized either through their unions or through immigrant organizations.

The history making May Day effort was first discussed informally among a an ad-hoc group of left labor activists of the Labor Left Project, and then taken up by labor leaders and activists associated with NY LACLAA, an organization that embodies the core leadership of labor and immigrant workers that have historically played the leading role in the organization of the U.S. working class.

The other May Day event that took place at Union Square – the May Day March and Rally for Worker and Immigrant Rights – was organized by the May 1st Coalition, an initiative of the International Action Center and activists of the Million Workers March. Union Square has become known as the location for May Day rallies in the years following the massive 2006 immigrant rights march in NYC as elsewhere and the IAC, never missing an opportunity, has sponsored May Day rallies in the years since at Union Square.

Many lamented the confusing mobilization of two separate rallies. Some organizations had to decide which to support. There were efforts made in the months preceding the rallies to work toward a coordinated effort that would merge the two rallies and marches, but to no avail.

Instead of cooperation, what resulted were anti-union smears and denunciations toward the unions and immigrants rights organizations that spearheaded the Foley Square mobilization. Some responses heard went like this: “we are marching with the little people, not the fat cat union bosses.” Verbal assaults were also common attacking President Obama and the Democratic Party.

It is hard to imagine how anyone would not welcome an historic departure for the organized labor movement from one of the longest lasting holdovers of the cold war – going from opposition to participation in May Day. It is also perplexing why some forces would not openly welcome the organized labor movement embracing justice for immigrants and calling for a boycott of Arizona and calling upon the U.S. government to demand the law be overturned. The emergence of labor and its most organized expression – the trade unions – assuming its historic role in advancing political demands for jobs and immigrant rights is a day many have long awaited.

But rather than embrace this new development, the IAC sponsored rally consistently narrowed the basis of participation with slogans and issues that were not singularly focused on the political demands that could unite the widest possible support from broad forces – justice for immigrants, labor rights and jobs for all. It should be noted that many of the immigrants who participated in the Union Square IAC sponsored rally did not necessarily support the sectarian content of the rally. Clearly, had not the Foley Square May Day been organized, the powerful voices of unions and organizations that assembled in Foley Square would have been absent on May Day.

Nor would there have been a platform for the many elected officials who spoke passionately on the need to unite to defeat the Arizona anti-immigrant bill – Cong. Charles Rangel, Cong. Nydia Velázquez and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Also speaking was Cong. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas who is the sponsor of the most progressive immigration legislation in Congress. Several other legislators spoke who had just passed city council and state legislative measures in NY to denounce the Arizona law. These progressive leaders are the core of legislators that the movement can now count on to sponsor legislation to pressure Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Fundamental to these two widely divergent approaches are important ideological differences. The unions, organizations and elected officials that were represented on May Day aim to not only defeat the Arizona law and others like it, but to win a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Only efforts that are inclusive and broad based, uniting left and center, organized to bring pressure on the levers of government – is the way to win for all working people.

Pat Fry is a labor union activist in New York City and a National Co-Chair of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

NYC May Day rally: thousands bring tradition back, urge legislative reform

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 01 May 2010 20:39:00 +0000

By Peter Gale
From the People's World newspaper:

The thousands of people jamming Manhattan’s Foley Square on May 1 demanding labor rights and immigration reform are part of a long tradition, stretching all the way back to the 1800s. The date was picked by the world working-class movement in memory of workers rallying peacefully in support of the eight hour day in the Haymarket Square rally, which became a massacre on May 4, 1886 in Chicago. Until now, it has been more widely celebrated in other countries than in the country where it started. But Latinos have sparked an interest in May Day rallies in the United States since 2006. This year, many labor unions climbed on board in unity with immigrant organizations.

The boisterous crowd was about two-thirds Latino, reflecting the fighting spirit among Latinos to fight for immigration reform, and reflecting the large immigrant population in New York City from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, and other countries in Central and South America.

Members of the Transport Workers Union, Local 100, Service Employees International Union, with many unionists from Local 1199, the Laborers Union, United Federation of Teachers, Professional Staff Congress, and other unions were present in force.

The most common poster seen among the crowd was “Friends Keep their Promises.” This slogan was a reminder to the Senate that immigration reform is part of the Obama agenda. Senator Chuck Schumer, D-NY, has been preparing immigration reform legislation to introduce this year. It was originally intended to be a bipartisan effort in a partnership with Senator Lindsey Graham, R-SC. Graham appears to have been pressured by Republican obstructionists who are trying to say “no” to everything in the Obama agenda. It is not clear whether Graham will continue to help pass any bipartisan legislation, so Schumer now appears to be working mostly with Democrats, while trying to woo one or two breakaway Republicans.

A few days before the rallies, President Obama warned that Congress may not have the “stomach” to pass immigration reform yet. It is not clear just how much a step forward the Schumer legislation will be.

In the meantime, immigrants are suffering from threats of deportation, harassment, discrimination, and occasional violence from employers, landlords, and some whites who worry that they might lose their jobs to immigrants willing to work for a minimum wage, or sometimes less. The labor movement in the United States has realized that it must fight discrimination and racism against immigrants in order to foster unity in the fight for labor rights and economic justice. The labor movement has come slowly to realize that undocumented immigrants living in fear of deportation and discrimination will be fearful to speak out for justice for all workers.

Many speakers and signs spoke out against the new Arizona law which many fear will end up profiling immigrants for police harassment. As the crowd chanted English and Spanish slogans, the most common one was “Obama Escucha, Estamos en la Lucha,” "Obama, Listen, We are in the Struggle."

The march went south from Foley Square, going west on Barkley Street. The crowd turned north on Church Street, and circling east on Worth Street to return to Foley Square.

What the NY Communist Party says now

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 01:51:00 +0000

Friends and comrades,

The report below was delivered to the New York State Communist Party's 29th Convention, which took place today. Its general direction was adopted. Edits for style, grammar and typographical errors need to be made, but we present the report to you here, in a rough, unedited version, so that you may see our general politics as soon as possible.

Report to the 29th Convention of the NY State Communist Party

Welcome, everyone.

This report will not go into too much detail on some of the most important issues—but for good reason. You’ll be hearing a number of extended remarks in the discussion—on labor and the jobs struggle, on housing, education, peace, on the fight against racism.

Co-equal to all this is the job of building the Communist Party. We see this task as so important that we’ve devoted a portion of the Convention to it, a more interactive portion. We’ve asked Danny Rubin, who’s studied Marxism, or Marxism-Leninism, whichever term you want to use for it, and has put decades into the study of the theory of the role of Party, to give a presentation on building the Party, the YCL and our press. Then the Convention will divide into workshops where people can throw out ideas and come to a greater and better understanding of how we can work to build the Party. These will be working meetings; the ideas developed, the best of them, will be put into practice. It’s up to everyone here to make sure that the Communist Party is stronger and better in New York.

Some points on the overall scene:

We’re in a period coming on the heels of a huge victory, the successful culmination in the fight for health care reform. I want to emphasize that I’m using the word “successful” without reservation or hesitation. I won’t go too much into the specifics; there’s a good PW article on that. But it does limit the profits of insurance companies. In less than a decade, more than 30 million new people will be insured.

That means tens of thousands of people each year will live longer, lives saved. What kind of progressive, not to mention Communist, could pooh-pooh this? Fighting against this bill, as some had urged, out of a dogmatic fidelity to the idea of single payer-or-nothing would have sentenced these people to death. We can’t be part of any such thing.

Reform, for the first time in decades, put Congress and the President on record as saying, “Yes, it is the job of the government to protect people and deliver them services.”

It’s not worth it to spend too much time arguing against reform’s left detractors; there is a much larger group of people against reform, attacking it from the right. In fact, the same dynamic can be seen on virtually all issues. We’ve seen two poles emerge in U.S. politics. On the one side, there is the progressive, democratic people’s movement. It includes the labor movement and the racially and nationally oppressed, young people and the women’s movement, the Obama administration as well as the GLBT community and others, including everyone from the peace movement to sections of the Democratic Party and even a section of monopoly capital itself. It goes without saying that, around this pole, going out in concentric circles of support, is the working class. But on the other side there is a scary, fascistic pole. It is the side that is dominated by the extreme sections of monopoly capital, the tea partiers, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and the Republican Party. This is the side of racist terror, the side that hates immigrants, that wants to escalate wars and terror around the world, and that is chasing immigrants out of the country.

We said that the working class is around the democratic pole, in concentric circles. Each circle that is closer to the center is more advanced. The same is true of the tea parties’ side, though with far less workers. It has to be said that there is some working class support there. But polls show that the tea party movement is mainly made up of middle strata people. The concentric circles on this side stretch out and meet and overlap with the circles from the other side. There are a huge number of working-class people somewhere in the middle who have contradictory ideas: big government is bad, but we should do something about health care; we’re union members and hate the bosses but why do we let in all these immigrants? Etc.

What to do about this? Obviously, we want to fight to get the best, most progressive, positions forward in our coalition. In practice, this means fighting for the dominance of labor and the other core forces, to set the stage at some point more than the monopoly forces, or the Democratic Party centrist forces in this coalition. At the same time, this can’t come at the expense of pushing that pole away from the working class people in the center. More people who are in the center have to be brought over to the side of the labor-led people’s coalition, that left pole, and we can do that.

We’re in a transitional period between a fight against the ultra right, just that most awful section of monopoly capital, and a period of an all out fight against monopoly capital. Currently, monopoly capital is sometimes an ally, sometimes not, based on any given issue. Even its most moderate section floats between the two poles. The question, then, is: how do we fully defeat the extremist ultra-right section of capital, and bring much of mass base over to the side of progress? How do we move to a new situation of working people and their allies versus all of monopoly capital? The answer given, and the answer with which I believe we would agree, is to fight to push forward the leading role of labor and its allies in the progressive camp and to, without yet pushing them away, marginalize the monopoly capital forces. That means helping to build the power of the AFL-CIO and the NAACP and NOW, NCLR and other Latino organizations, and the youth and student organizations, etc. At the same time, the alliance has to be maintained (even though this section of monopoly capital either doesn’t realize or openly resents being in alliance with such people’s forces), and strengthened, to ensure that the far right doesn’t pick up seats and power in the November elections.

The main issue going forward is going to be the question of jobs; we’ve already seen that this is the case. The biggest thing on the minds of the American people is the economy, and how it affects us. Can we win government intervention that will help to alleviate people’s economic suffering? If so, we can actually strengthen our coalition’s hand in November; if not, we can expect to see a setback, a defeat at the polls that would strengthen the hand of reaction.

I’m restraining myself from getting into the jobs’ fight; we have extended comments on that.

The stakes are high, and this election has to be seen as just as important as 2008. Will we move forward into an era of reforms, or will our efforts be stymied?

Concretely this means picking up Democratic seats in the House and Senate, with the best possible candidates. Here in New York, that means making sure that the NY senator maintains her seat. She represents what we can do in New York State right now, the balance of forces, and she has the backing of the key players, including labor and women’s organizations. As in all things, this isn’t about personalities, individual candidates, but about the victory or failure of the coalition/movement around them. We want to see a victory of this labor-led coalition around her.

We’ll also have to take a look at the House, and compare notes with our allies in labor and the broader movement: There are Democratic seats around the state that face challenges and need to be defended.

Also, there is the question of the governor: How do we make sure that some Republican doesn’t take the governor’s mansion? Or that the State Senate stays Democratic, or picks up some seats to make sure that no right wing coup d’etat can happen again. This will be State Senate that will be in power for the redistricting based on the census results, and the Democrats need to be in power to avoid Republican gerrymandering. These are going to be important parts of the elections, and, given that we are a small party, we have to decide what to prioritize, based on the actual situation as it develops.

We should talk about these elections here, and ask the incoming State Committee to make concrete decisions about what to do, and where.

We talked about the coalition necessary to win, and we saw the New York City version of such a coalition, very beautifully and fully on display, in the election campaign of John Liu. He had powerful opponents: he was one of four candidates vying for the seat, and Wall Street and the big developers supported anyone but Liu, and they had billions of dollars to spend. But he was able to win 40 percent of the vote in a four way race, and then, in the runoff, crush his opponent with more than 60 percent of the vote.

Why was Liu able to do this? The coalition: With the exception of a single union, Liu had the support of the entire city labor movement. He had the support of the African American community, the Latino communities, the Asian communities, the GLBT community, and many white liberals. This powerful, undivided coalition was able to crush the Wall Street candidates. We saw the same thing in the mayoral fight—almost. The coalition nearly came together around Bill Thompson, who was trying to defeat Mayor Bloomberg, who doesn’t just take the side of the bosses, but who is one of the bosses. Bloomberg, who you’ll hear much more about in the sub reports (if I were to really get into him, and how awful he’s been, I’d speak for twice as long!) He spent more money than any other candidate in the history of municipal elections, in any country, about $200 million, and had years of incumbency. Nonetheless, he was only able to beat Thompson by less than five points. And the coalition around Thompson included a divided labor movement. Of the biggest unions in the city, the most powerful, two or three sat out the elections or endorsed Bloomberg—out of fear of what he’d do to them if he won. If a single one of these unions had jumped in and mobilized, we would probably be in a city whose chief executive was Bill Thompson.

This coalition is the only way forward. In everything we do, every election, every fight on an issue, we have to keep in our thoughts the question of how we help this coalition come together and stay united, and how to further empower it. That is the way forward in every instance.

We should take pride that we were able to predict a number of things. We were saying “tax the rich” to fix the budget crisis all along. Now, we saw that the Working Families Party took up that idea, and pushed to tax up to 50 percent of Wall Street bonuses, and Paterson and Bloomberg are backpedaling, since they’ve likely been scared by the popular support for that demand.

We were, aside from Bill Thompson, perhaps the only people in New York City who actually thought that there was a chance for Bloomberg to be defeated, if the correct balance of forces were assembled. We were proven correct. The fact that we’re too small and weren’t able to put forward the case to enough of the key players in the movement hindered the city. If others had been persuaded to follow our line, the city would not have a fat cat billionaire mayor, the mayor who wants to take away kids educations, privatize the schools, etc. After the elections, we said that the time was right for some kind of progressive caucus in the City Council, already close to half the members of the council itself. No one said that, except us. We put the idea forward in the public forum. Did they take the idea and run with it? We don’t know, but we did accurately assess the situation. We can take this as proof that we’re on the right track, in touch with what’s going on, and, more importantly, that the Marxist outlook, the Communist outlook, is correct and works.

Turning to the Party organization, I’ve already mentioned our politics, our Marxist analysis, and how all that led us to the right conclusions. Our analysis has proven sound.

Within the past year, we’ve replaced an outdated New York City club structure with something new and better. What we had in place before was the relic of a different era. We had neighborhood clubs that had too few people for there to be any critical mass, an arts club that, while full of good people, couldn’t have any direction because it was multi-borough and most of the people who were artists—some historical figures in the Party—had passed. When we studied the situation, we saw that we needed to take a step back and regroup in order to move forward. We dissolved all these clubs and created a new Manhattan-wide club, chaired by Bill Davis, and assigned the members of all of the former neighborhood clubs, as well as people in Manhattan who had been clubless, into the new club. The AEM club’s members were sent into other clubs, where they can participate in local struggles. Manhattan held a club pride event, and it was pretty exciting. Meeting attendance is good, and they are connected to their communities. If it keeps going in this direction, we won’t have to wait that long to see new community clubs emerge out of it, clubs that will have strong roots in Harlem, in Washington Heights, in Inwood—just to name some places uptown.

We’ve established a Queens club, and Gabe Falsetta is helping to get it off the ground. It is small, but the first club in Queens in years. We’ve established an education workers club, out of the old, structurally non-workable trade unionists club. Mike and Bobby are leading that club’s work. We’re also on the verge of establishing a new Staten Island club; Gabe and I just met with the people who will become the founders of that club, by phone. Arts committee; TU committee

We’ve done other good things as well, but let’s look at some problems. Now, we only have a single person on staff, instead of the two people a few years ago, and three people before that. This is a result of objective conditions—the Party budget. The Party is, for the first time in decades, stable in its finances, and poised to do better (there will be a pre-Convention document on that), but that meant cutbacks in staff.

We have too small of a base of readers of the PW, something Danny is planning to address, and too few members, also something Danny is planning to address.

Because of all this, we haven’t been able to participate and influence the people we want to influence. We haven’t had nearly enough participation in the mass arenas of struggle, in the coalitions: Organizing for America, the labor movement, etc. We haven’t been able to have sufficient presence at big rallies, to either have Party contingents or hand out material.

We need better financial support. We’ve got only 26 sustainers in the district! How can this be? You all have a sustainer form in your folders. Can you either start a sustainer—taken out of your account each month automatically—or raise it?

I want everyone here to think about how you can help in this respect. The Party isn’t some amorphous, phantasmagorical organism that exists outside of our membership; it is its membership. We are the Party, and we all have to think of what we can do better.

I wanted to list all of these problems so that we could think about them, how to fix them. I’m not trying to be depressing or gloomy; there would be no point in listing these problems if they were not things we could overcome—and I think we will do so. As I said, we’ve increased our standing. We have politicians coming to us now looking for help in their campaigns, giving us openings in grassroots struggles and, more than five years ago, we’re known as a positive force in many arenas.

We have a lot of reasons to be optimistic; let’s work to ensure that the Party grows stronger—we’re finally moving forward past the anti-ultra right stage of struggle, but we’ve still got a long way to go between now and the construction of socialism!

City will debate cost of war vs. human needs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:13:00 +0000

The biggest U.S. city may call for a cut in the Pentagon budget to fund domestic needs, if City Council member Letitia James has her way.

James announced she will introduce a council resolution this month asking the state's congressional delegation to seek cuts in the proposed military budget to provide funding to state and local governments to deal with massive budget deficits throughout the country.

New York City is presently facing a $4.9 billion deficit. To resolve the deficit, the mayor has proposed draconian cuts to essential city services and jobs. Meanwhile, the nation's military budget is at a record high.

The resolution calls for transferring military spending to support job creation, affordable housing, anti-hunger programs, environmental protection, education and other essential human needs.

Supporters include community groups and New York's Sen. Kirstin Gillibrand, D, who are seeking an additional $4 billion annually as part of the reauthorization of federal child nutrition programs, such as WIC and school meals. Presently, the Senate Agriculture Committee is proposing only a $450 million increase.

Since the City Council has no real sway over foreign policy, the resolution will be mainly symbolic. But James believes the resolution will pass with broad support, and encourage members of the community to take action. She is working with the council's newly formed progressive caucus and other members. Beyond that, she said, it is up to the people of New York City to reach their congressional representatives to get action from Washington.

Anti-hunger and peace groups joined James at a City Hall press conference and rally on April 15, Tax dDy, calling for military cuts to fund the budget deficits and human needs.

James was introduced by Mark Dunlea of the Hunger Action Network of New York State. She focusing her remarks on the needs of children, the elderly and the unemployed. She pointed out that though the official unemployment rate in the city is 10.2 percent, the real figure is three times that number.

Christy Robb of Hour Children, a Long Island City-based family service organization, spoke of the growing number of people going hungry and the lacking of resources to meet their needs. "There has been no talk about extra federal dollars for food this year and now we have Mayor Bloomberg talking about cutting the emergency food aid program and Governor Paterson talking about cutting the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program," she said.

Matt Weinstein of Brooklyn for Peace noted that the mayor of Binghamton, N.Y., Matthew T. Ryan, has put up at his City Hall a device displaying a running tally of the cost of current wars and occupations, highlighting the enormous burden the military budget is putting on Binghamton and other cities around the country. Mayor Bloomberg, Weinstein said, only concerns himself with keeping Wall Street in the money.

Video of the City Hall press conference (courtesy Matthew Weinstein):

Building workers rally on ruling class turf

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:06:00 +0000

Thousands of energized New York City unionized apartment building workers and their supporters marched April 13 from Central Park to ritzy Park Avenue to a rally on their contract demands. With negotiations with the industry association representing most owners, the Realty Advisory Board (RAB), going nowhere, the union representing the workers, Local 32BJ SEIU, called for the event to garner support for their cause and ready the workers for a possible strike.

In the four years since the last contract, prices have increased by over 11% while wages have gone up only 8.5%. Now, in the negotiations, the RAB is calling for reductions in both wages and benefits.

Leaders of 32BJ SEIU, including its president Mike Fishman, as well as leaders of several other unions, pointed out that the members work hard not only to take care of their buildings but also to help the residents who live in them by maintaining safe, healthy environments. Now it is time for the workers to get something in return, a fair contract.

The New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and New York City Comptroller John Liu all spoke in support of the union, emphasizing that the many contributions the workers give to the quality of life in New York City and the importance of maintaining the ability of working people to continue to afford to live here require the need for a fair contract with increases in both wages and benefits. Later in the program, over one dozen members of the New York City Council appeared on the stage with the union leaders in a show of support.

The union represents 30,000 workers who provide services in 3,200 apartment buildings with over one million residents throughout New York City. Contract talks began on March 9. On April 1, union members authorized a strike if one is necessary. On Thursday, their bargaining team will go to round the clock negotiations with the RAB. The current contract expires at 12:01 am on April 21, and failure to agree to a new one by then could result in the workers walking picket lines. The union leaders emphasized that they and their members don't want to strike, but they will if they have to. And they will win.

By C. Edward Meyer

Three grim tales from the Big Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 21:08:00 +0000

Three news items in my inbox today paint a grim picture about the prospects for working-class families in the Big Apple.

The first was something that might have appeared in The Onion.

Turns out that New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to charge rent at the city's homeless shelters. (That's right: they are homeless because they can't afford rent, and the city wants to charge them ... rent!)

This would include families with children, who make up 70-plus percent of the shelter population, which adds up to thousands of homeless kids.

The second article was about the fight to retain the student MetroCard program (for subway and bus rides).

This program provides more than half a million students with free or half-fare passes. If it is eliminated, a family of four could end up paying an extra $2,300 a year to send their kids to school.

Although the proposal to eliminate student MetroCards originally came from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Gov. David Paterson, at this point it's the Bloomberg administration that is refusing to pay the city's share of the cost - a share that it has not increased in 15 years.

According to the Working Families Party, "When asked if he would do his part to help students, the mayor's response was, 'It's the state's fault.'" WFP is running two online petition campaigns, one calling on the State Senate to prevent the city from charging rent at the shelters, and the other, aimed at the City Council, calling for funding the MetroCard program.

The third article that caught my eye concerned a report that 43 percent of Manhattan's elementary and middle schools face severe - and growing - space shortages. Just one example illustrates the seriousness of the problem: P.S. 199, which has three fifth grade classes and eight kindergarten classes.

Meanwhile, school construction is frozen, and both the city and state budgets contain cuts in funding for education.

Are there solutions to the budget crises? One idea that's been around forever - raising taxes on the rich - is coming up, in all kinds of quarters.

Last week, City Comptroller John Liu said that Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg were wrong to rule out tax increases on bonuses to employees of banks and financial companies that received federal bailout funds.

Ranked third or fourth richest city in the world, New York has a choice: will it tell its young generation that it cannot provide shelter, or classrooms, or even transportation to school? Or will it tell the high rollers, whose bonuses in 2009 reached $20.3 billion (a 17 percent increase over 2008), to pay a larger share?

By Elena Mora

N.Y. to slash literacy funding

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:05:00 +0000

Though illiteracy here and across the U.S. continues to be a growing social problem, efforts to combat it are under attack by the state legislature and the mayor's office, under the guise of reigning in runaway spending.

The state budget proposals now being debated slash $2 million from the city's adult literacy program-one third of its total budget. Already $612,000 had been cut from the budget, meaning that, altogether, a full quarter of all money allocated to improving the city's adult literacy rate has been or is proposed to be slashed.

Additionally, the budget proposes a cut of $1.5 million to GED testing sites.

The lack of basic literacy skills has a direct correlation to unemployment and poverty. According to the National Institute for Literacy, 43 percent of those with the lowest literacy skills live in poverty. This, in turn, often leads to a life of desperation and crime: 85 percent of juvenile offenders are functionally or marginally illiterate and 70 percent of all prisoners in state and federal jails are illiterate.

As of 2007, says the NIL, "42 million American adults can't read at all; 50 million are unable to read at a higher level that is expected of a fourth or fifth grader." In addition, that number was on the increase by 2.25 million people per year.

Government, advocates say, needs to step in. Cutting programs to combat illiteracy can only lead to more unemployment, poverty and crime, and will cause the children of illiterate adults to do worse in school.

According to City Council member Sara Gonzalez, who spoke at an April 6 rally on the steps of City Hall against the cuts, "Being able to speak English well and having a high school diploma are critical stepping stones towards self-sufficiency. In addition, parents are better able to assist their children with schoolwork" if they are able to read and write.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the U.S. Department of Higher Education, 22 percent of New Yorkers lack basic literacy skills. That number is higher in poorer communities. The number is 37 percent in Brooklyn and 41 percent in the Bronx.

As the budget fight continues, students, volunteer tutors and program administrators have vowed to continue to struggle.