There's blood on those Valentine's Day roses

People's World

by: John Wojcik

February 11 2011

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It's not what you think about when you buy flowers, but your Valentine could end up with a bouquet picked by sexually harassed women or child laborers and then sprayed, rinsed and dipped in lethal chemicals.

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In the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day, which accounts for 40 percent of  the annual fresh flower sales in the United States, thousands of women in Colombia and Ecuador are forced to work 80-hour weeks with no overtime pay.

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The group Fairness in Flowers  reports that at flower farms in Colombia and Ecuador - where most of the flowers now sold in the U.S. originate, two-thirds of the workers are women.
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"These women are routinely subjected to harassment and even rape from their male supervisors. They suffer eye infections and miscarriages from consistent contact with dangerous pesticides," said a Feb. 8 release put out by Change.org

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Finding retailers that carry fair trade flowers isn't easy. Flower buyers are warned to stay away from companies that use a certifying agency called Florverde, which the companies claim ensures that its flower farms adhere to certain environmental standards. In reality, Florverde is a front for the Association of Colombian Flower Exporters which has almost no labor standards. Florverde certifies flowers even if forced labor is used and never considers, before certifying flowers, issues like low wages and suppression of workers' rights.The buyer should beware then when he or she makes a purchase from 1-800-flowers, the largest florist in the world. The company uses Florverde to "certify" its flowers.

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A study by the International Labor Rights Forum found that in Ecuador 55 percent of the workers have been victims of sexual harassment, 25 percent of the workers had been forced to have sex with a coworker or superior and 10 percent had been sexually attacked. Many women said they had been asked out by their bosses or supervisors, who offered to improve their working conditions in exchange for sexual favors.

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Many women were required to take pregnancy tests or show proof of sterilization as a condition for hiring by employers apparently aware of the dangers of chemical pesticides to their potential workers who might become pregnant.

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Insect pests breed rapidly in the tropical climate that drew U.S. flower growers to Colombia and nearby Ecuador. That, coupled with competition from flower growers in Africa and China, helped contribute to unprecedented use of pesticides and fungicides and spiraling cancer rates and neurological disorders among workers.

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The World Health Organization noted back in a 2005 report that chemicals used by Florverde farms, the ones that are supposedly "regulated," are among the most highly toxic chemicals that can possibly be used in insecticides.

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Only 16.7 percent of the 84 farms studied respected pesticide manufacturer recommendations to prevent workers from re-entering greenhouses sprayed with the pesticides for at least 24 hours.
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Carmen Orjuela told an AP reporter recently that she began suffering dizzy spells and repeated falls in 1997, while working at a flower farm outside Bogotá. During the peak season before Valentine's Day, she said her employer forced workers to enter greenhouses only a half-hour after they were fumigated.

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"Those who refused were told they could leave - that 20 people were outside waiting to take their job."

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On Nov. 25, 2003, more than 200 workers at Flores Aposentos, outside Bogotá, were hospitalized after fainting and developing sores inside their mouths. Authorities determined the mass poisoning was caused by pesticide-handling violations, but fined the company just $5,770.

The Harvard School of Public Health examined 72 children ages 7-8 whose mothers were exposed to pesticides during pregnancy in the flower-growing region of Ecuador and found they had developmental delays of up to four years on aptitude tests.

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So when buying flowers, if they're imported look for legitimately certified fair trade flowers, not Florverde. If they're domestically grown, try to find certified organic flowers picked and shipped by organized workers.

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Photo: Workers packaging flowers in Colombia  

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Mubarak’s fall poses new challenge for U.S.

People's World

by: Susan Webb

February 11 2011 

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The fall of President Hosni Mubarak, greeted with jubilation in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, came after a wave of strikes this week demonstrated the depth and breadth of the Egyptian uprising. The numbers were so large - an estimated 200,000 took part - and the participants so wide-ranging - port workers, textile workers, postal workers, transport workers, farmers, the unemployed, journalists and more, from the Nile Delta to the Suez Canal, - that even the New York Times featured the story on its front page.

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With developments in Egypt changing moment by moment, two things are clear: This is a revolution that will profoundly impact not only Egypt but the wider region as well. And it has forced the U.S. to a foreign policy crossroads, compelled to choose a path as the freight trains of history rush by at breakneck speed.

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The Obama administration has shifted its response considerably since Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's ill-advised response on the first day of the uprising, Jan. 25, when she said that "the Egyptian government is stable."

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During that first week, many complained that the White House was giving mixed messages, with Vice President Joe Biden saying of Mubarak, "I would not refer to him as a dictator," while President Obama was calling reform "absolutely critical for the long-term wellbeing of Egypt."

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By the end of that week, the White House said the United States would review the $1.5 billion yearly aid it provides to Egypt (nearly all of it military aid), and Obama publicly expressed displeasure with Mubarak and said he had pressed the Egyptian ruler to make major reforms "to meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people." After Mubarak reshuffled his government and named intelligence chief Omar Suleiman as vice president, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley tweeted that Mubarak "can't reshuffle the deck and then stand pat." On Feb. 1, when Mubarak said he would not run for re-election in September, Obama took on a sharper tone, telling the Egyptian ruler that "an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful and it must begin now."

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The White House has maintained that position since, but it took no further public steps, despite many calls for it do so.

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There were growing calls for the U.S. to cut off military aid to Egypt as a way to exert pressure for change. Now, with Egypt's military playing a leading role in the post-Mubarak period, such calls may subside. But they will undoubtedly rise again if real changes demanded by the Egyptian people don't happen immediately.

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The announcement of Mubarak's departure said he was handing over power to the military. While rank and file soldiers come from the masses, the military elite has been characterized as an oligarchy. Suleiman's role remains unclear. U.S. diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks described Suleiman as Mubarak's "consigliere." As head of Egyptian intelligence since 1993, Suleiman directed the regime's apparatus of repression.

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Mohamed ElBaradei, the diplomat who has emerged as a significant opposition leader, said Thursday it is the new forces, not the outgoing regime, who should be in charge of what happens next. "There is no credibility in either Mubarak or Suleiman or anybody who is associated with that regime," he said in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine.

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Egyptians are looking for substantive changes. Immediate demands are for a transitional national unity government that includes the movements that organized this revolution, and an interim constitution that guarantees human rights and a democratic process for September's presidential elections. The protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square are highly unlikely to accept a military dictatorship of any kind.

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Beyond that, as this week's strikes indicate, they are looking for steps toward economic and social justice.

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Commenting on the U.S. response, ElBaradei said, "Events have gone so fast, you know, nobody predicted. It's like the 1979 Iranian Revolution in that things took everybody by surprise, including us even. And they had to adjust their policy every half hour. As you remember, it started with Hillary Clinton saying ‘we assess that the government of Egypt is stable.' I took issue with that on CNN; I said she must have a different definition of stability than I do - stability meaning repression, poverty."

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The U.S. will have to decide if it will continue to trumpet "stability" at the expense of the Egyptian people. Much to the surprise of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, the Egyptian people themselves have shown that this is no longer a viable policy.

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Photo: Suez Canal Company workers rally as they began an open-ended strike in front of the company's headquarters in Ismailia City, Egypt, Wednesday, Feb. 9. Workers demanded the resignation of their immediate boss Admiral Ahmed Fadel, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority. They also demanded a pay increase and social equality. (AP Photo)

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Vietnam's Communist Party meets

People's World

 

by: W. T. Whitney Jr.

February 9 2011

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The goal for the Vietnamese Communist Party's (CPV) 11th Party Congress was to “enhance the Party's leadership capacity and combativeness, promoting the nation's synergy, comprehensively boosting the doi moi (renovation) process, creating the fundamentals for Vietnam to basically become a modern-oriented industrial country by 2020.”

The gathering in Hanoi January 12-20 attracted little U.S. media coverage, no small irony given obsessive U.S. interest decades ago when millions died, U.S. society fractured, and advanced weaponry and a rich nation's resources were turned against a nation of poor farmers.

At five year intervals, the CPV Congress chooses party leaders and determines short and long term national goals. This time, 1,377 delegates participated, representing 3.6 million CPV members, organized in 54,000 party units. Retired party leaders and foreign guests attended. A newly elected Central Committee, which meets twice yearly, replaced one third of the 17 person Political Bureau with younger members.

Retiring CPV Secretary General Nong Due Manh assured delegates of the nation's “aspiration to establish its fundamental economic base of socialism with a superstructure of politics, ideology, and culture directed at building a prosperous nation.” Emphasizing scientific and technologic education, he called for a “socialist oriented market economy” with a “high sense of independence and self sufficiency.”

Documents submitted to the Congress included an updated “Draft Platform on National Construction in the Transitional Period toward Socialism,” a proposed “Socio-economic Development Strategy for 2011-2020,” and a report “reviewing the leadership and guidance of the 10th Party Central Committee.”

According to official news sources, discussion covered “the Vietnamese revolutionary process” and “fundamental directions in the process of socialist construction. Delegates “assessed the achievements, shortcomings, weaknesses, reasons, and lessons” stemming from previous strategies. They considered “directions for Party building in terms of ideological training, virtue, ethics, [and] improving Party members' quality.”

For Political Bureau President Nguyen Minh Triet, opening the Congress, this was “a very crucial moment,” particularly because this was the 25th anniversary of “doi moi,” or renovation. That comprehensive program of political and economic changes has enabled socialist Vietnam to join capitalist oriented, international economic and financial networks. Review and reappraisal were due, he said.

Analyst Alberto Cruz cites present Vietnamese determination to maintain “social well-being,” provide employment through joint ventures with foreign corporations, and “protect the population [through] lines of credit for small and medium size businesses.”

Despite the world economic crisis, the country's growth rate, maintained over recent years at an average 7.2 percent annual rate, fell only 37 percent. By contrast, Malaysia's growth rate declined 137 percent and U.S. and Eurozone growth rates dropped 219 percent and 224 percent respectively. Over 10 years, Vietnam's GDP and export yield have increased by factors of 3.5 and five, respectively. Average schooling is up almost two years per child since 1990. From 1970 on, life expectancy advanced 26 years. Per capita income is up threefold over 10 years. Severe poverty has fallen from 37.4 percent in 1998 to ten percent last year. CPV leaders are attempting to balance funding demands of large infrastructure projects with support for social, energy, and communications programs, which also entails some controversy.

Vietnam certainly has problems, among them widening inequalities despite the drop in poverty, corruption, high food prices and a serious trade deficit. There has been controversy about policies toward Chinese bauxite mines and the management of the state shipping industry. Some have suggested that the “socialist market” economic policies have led to a waning interest in Marxist teachings among the young. However, notwithstanding these difficulties, the Congress ended on a high note of optimism.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tran Dung was re nominated to his post, though the National Assembly must approve this in May. New faces in the national leadership will include CPV Secretary-General Nguyen Phu Trong, the former National Assembly head who helped engineer the Assembly's recent rejection of a proposed Japanese designed high-speed railway from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City. Nyguyen Trong Sang was nominated as president of the country. The outgoing president and general secretary are retiring for age and health reasons.

Independence leader Ho Chi Minh, honored at the CPV Congress, long ago reflected on goals not met, battles not won. “If it cannot be done because there are too few people, let many join their efforts. If it cannot be completed by the present generation, it can be finished by the next.” Time and persistence will tell, he was saying.

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Image: Communist Party of Vietnam's website.

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Factory farms produce more than eggs

by: Phil Amadon

August 24 2010

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When I was a little boy, I remember following my grandmother out to the wooden chicken house on our family farm. There were eight or nine hens, softly clucking. We collected a few eggs every morning, stayed out of the way of the rooster, and I watched, surprised, when my tender, sweet grandmother slaughtered a hen from time to time.

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In the early 1970s, I took a job at a brand new "industrial" hen house in Indiana. A friend of mine had told me about hen house construction and how I could work on the crew, building A-frame chicken cages and hooking up the snow-plow-like devices that would move the manure out of the giant manure pits. Everything was clean and spotless because there were no chickens there yet.

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When the construction was done, I decided to stay on and help carry chickens upside down from the trucks and put them in their new homes. Chickens seem to become very quiet when you grab several of them and carry them upside down. But when they are jammed six to a cage, 20,000 to a house, 60,000 to the complex, their combined soft cluckings sound like a roar of a crowd after a touchdown at a football game.

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One of my fellow workers loved to walk into the chicken house first thing in the morning and yell drill sergeant style, "Chickens!" For a moment, 20,000 chickens would go completely silent, then pick up one by one until the dense roar was in the air again.

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The chickens, I was told, were given something in their food to make them lay eggs faster. They acted strange, attacking each other, sitting in the corner of the cage, dying. And they died by the hundreds. One worker was hired per chicken house to haul out dead chickens, to be taken away by the rendering truck, which picked up a 50 gallon drum of dead chickens every day. These were chickens who were brought to the house in the prime of their life, by chicken standards.

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At the end of the cycle, we carried the survivors upside down to the truck, where they were hauled to a plant to be made into chicken soup. I didn't eat canned chicken soup for 20 years after that. I still don't eat the brand name that used the chickens.

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The water pipes kept the water dripping continuously into each cage, and their feed was there for them all the time, laced with whatever needed to be in it to make them lay eggs faster than their nature meant them to. The conveyor belt that carried the massive supply of eggs to the packing house ran continuously at a certain time of day. The egg cases had little pictures of chickens walking in chicken yards with the sun shining and chickens wandering free underneath trees and sky.

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The pictures on the egg cartons looked a little bit like the backyard on our family farm in the 1950s, and I think that was just the point. The producers wanted us to think about something in our past when we broke the eggs in our pan and made our eggs scrambled or over-easy.

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I did some maintenance work at the chicken house, and I guess I didn't know what was happening to me as I did this work. The job I did was to replace chicken manure plow cables when they would break under the weight of the manure. The engineers had designed the cable to be a little too small to handle the great weight of the manure generated by 20,000 chickens per house. The manure pits in theory probably looked great but when we had to climb down into the pit with rain coats and leg-high rubber boots on to splice the cables with U-bolts, knee-deep in manure, it wasn't quite so nice as I am sure the blue print looked to the engineer who designed it. Even when we had taken the boots off and the rain coats off, the smell saturated our clothing.

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When we arrived at the local town bar for lunch, somebody would always call out, "Lord God, there comes the chicken crew!"

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It seemed to me that there were enough bad things going on that maybe we could have used a union. My parish priest had sparked my interest in the United Farm Workers in the 1960s, and I contacted the UFW who were organizing boycott activities in the region and talked to them about our situation and what it would take for us to become part of the United Farm Workers. I talked to several of my fellow workers and the task of unionization seemed overwhelming. The United Farm Workers didn't seem like it fit their organizing strategy, and my fellow workers thought being in a union was a pipe dream, and said "I won't be here too long." So I gave up.

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The smell did more than saturate my clothing. After a period of time, I begin to notice that my face and forehead ached, and then they ached all the time. I had splitting headaches. I went to the dentist because I thought I had an infected tooth. He told my friends who were with me, "He does not have an infected tooth; he has a massive sinus infection and needs to go to the emergency room immediately."

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I passed out on the way to the hospital. I looked at my signature later when I was admitted to the hospital. It was barely "chicken scratch." I was in the hospital for a week, shot full of the latest antibiotics of that time, having my sinuses drained with a great needle, and at the end of the stay, the doctor said to me, "Son, I have rarely seen a sinus infection so bad. If you had gotten it in the days before antibiotics, back in the day when I started practicing as a doctor, you would have died."

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I asked the doctor, "I worked in the big chicken houses-- do you think that had something to do with it?"

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"I don't know," he said. And that was the end of it. After having my sinuses drained one more time, I moved on with my life.

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Safety issues and farmworkers' rights, as brought out in the latest "egg scandal," were there for everyone to see at the very beginning of the factory farms, if you were there. I was there. I saw it. I felt it, but the overwhelming majority of people did not see it, did not feel it.

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The very positive work of the young activist in publicizing the terrible conditions at some factory farms makes a coalition ever more possible between farm workers, potential organic farmers, and the food-consuming public (meaning all of us).

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We must support the United Farm Workers and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee in their efforts to become nationwide unions, representing farm workers everywhere while keeping their wonderful grassroots qualities as both movements and effective unions.  

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If you are not already interested in organic food as a consumer, start studying the interconnection between organic food production, worker and consumer health, environmental quality, and animal protection.

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Even if you're not a vegan or vegetarian, there is a possible alliance with animal rights' activists and people who would like to eat organically grown, humanely produced meat, eggs, and milk.

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If you are in some way connected to a family farm or the agricultural industry, fighting for national policies that emphasize organic production and humane production benefits us all.

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Many farmworker rights activists, organic farmers, environmentalists, animal rights' activists, and consumers interested in consumption of organic milk, meat, and eggs have a natural common interest together.

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Photo: FarmSanctuary.org/CC

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World Notes: UN, Pakistan, Iran, Honduras, South Africa, Cuba

by: W. T. Whitney Jr.

August 23 2010.

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United Nations: Labor group reports bad news on young workers

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The International Labor Organization issued a report August 12 indicating that at the end of 2009 81 million people between 15 and 24 years of age were unemployed, up from 11.9 percent in 2007 to 13 percent last year. The report highlights the social risk of unemployed youth, a "lost generation" who, discouraged during a time of economic crisis, have abandoned the labor market. In these circumstances, young people in underdeveloped countries are seen as particularly vulnerable to underemployment and poverty. In 2008, young workers constituted 24 percent of the world's working poor and 18.1 percent of the world total of unemployed people. The report, accessible at www.ilo.org, shows young females experiencing more difficulties in finding work than young men.  

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Pakistan: U.S. base is protected at people's expense

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The Asian Human Rights Commission issued a statement August 20 condemning U.S. and Pakistani officials deemed as responsible for destroying a water bypass seven days earlier in Sindh Province. Pakistan's Army put Sports Minister Ejaz Jakhrani, elected from the area, in charge of the operation aimed at protecting the US - operated Shahbaz airbase from flooding. Water thus diverted inundated Jacobabad district, destroying hundreds of homes, drowning the town of Dera Allahyar, and forcing the dislocation of 800,000 people. It is alleged also that the base has been closed to relief agencies. With other airfields beneath water, that prohibition has hindered medical rescue missions and food supply flights from reaching areas of need. The statement is accessible at: www.ahrchk.net/

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Iran: Nuclear power plant is fueled

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On August 21, after decades of delay, the Russian - built Bushehr nuclear power plant began taking on fuel. International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors were on hand, although observers agreed the $1 billion plant poses no proliferation risk, especially as return of spent plutonium-containing fuel to Russia was written into the agreement. In June, Russia backed UN sanctions against uranium enrichment by Iran. Yet Iranian spokespersons claim enrichment would be aimed at producing fuel for electricity generation thereby removing dependency on Russian fuel. The Moscow Times reported the CEO of the Rosatom Corporation, builder of the power plant, as stressing international participation in the project. Supplies were "made from more than 10 countries," said Sergei Kirivenko.

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Honduras: Land dispute pits rich versus poor

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In July, soldiers harassed residents of Zacata Grande Island on behalf of Miguel Facusse. Thugs returned to the island in mid August, reinforcing demands that inhabitants leave. According to Rebelion.org, the real estate magnate, agribusiness mogul, and food manufacturer was targeting the ADEPZA cooperative, champion of land rights for families arriving on the sparsely populated island decades ago. Promising to build a school and deliver land to poor people, Facusse, whose ownership claims may be tenuous, promotes the island's exclusive Coyolito Club. Protests erupted in April following the killing in Colon of a peasant protesting Facusse's alleged illegal ownership of an African palm farm. Earlier he had suggested that confrontations reflect badly on "the image that Honduras projects to the world of the investors."

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South Africa: Massive strike portends future divisions 

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According to www.iol.co.za, it was "South Africa's worst industrial action." One million public sector unions affiliated with the COSATU labor federation launched an indefinite strike on August 19 when governmental offers of a seven percent wage increase and a $90 monthly housing allowance were rejected. Unions are demanding an 8.6 percent wage hike and a $130 housing allowance. Violence spread, security forces were mobilized, hospitals were barricaded, and criminal courts moved into high gear. Labor support for the Jacob Zuma presidency has plummeted. Strikers condemn government spending on World Cup facilities and on infrastructure projects, reports Al Jazeera. With government debt rising, inflation is at 4.2 percent and one million jobs have been lost since 2008, when joblessness was already 25 percent. A labor court on August 21 banned essential services workers from striking.

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Cuba: American Ballet Theater will visit 

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"We believe in the power of the arts to connect people and transform lives," said American Ballet Theater executive director Rachel Moore. She recently announced plans for the company to perform at Havana's International Ballet Festival in early November at the Karl Marx Theater. Later principal dancers will be offering additional performances. This, the U.S. troupe's first visit to the island in fifty years, comes two months after Alicia Alonso, Cuba's famous ballerina and director of its national ballet company, was honored in New York. AFP news speculates that the U.S. government will soon expand other educational and cultural contacts between the two nations subjected to a prolonged U.S. economic blockade.  

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Photo: Youth Fight For Jobs demonstration in the United Kingdom. (CC)

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U-turn in Afghanistan

by: Marilyn Bechtel

August 26 2010

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As the ninth anniversary of the war in Afghanistan approaches, the war is failing, casualties are escalating among both U.S.-NATO forces and Afghan civilians, and Americans' support for the conflict is at its lowest ebb. These trends increasingly find reflection in Congress. It's time for a U-turn, in Afghanistan and in U.S. foreign policy generally.

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Two polls released in mid-August show Americans' support for the war at its lowest point ever. The Associated Press found support reaching just 38 percent - down from 46 percent in March - while 58 percent said they opposed U.S. engagement in the conflict. Less than one in five think the situation in Afghanistan will improve in the next year, while 29 percent think it will get worse.

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A CNN poll put opposition to the conflict even higher, at 62 percent - up from 56 percent in May.

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But at the same time, a complicated dance is playing out at top decision-making levels, with new U.S. commander in Afghanistan General David Petraeus saying President Obama's July 2011 deadline to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan is "not the date when the American forces will begin an exodus," and the White House reiterating that the date is "non-negotiable." At the same time, the administration has set no timetable to complete the withdrawal.

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The BBC recently quoted Petraeus as saying next July is when "some tasks" will be shifted to "some Afghan forces in those areas where the conditions allow it." Defense Secretary Robert Gates has also said the troop withdrawals "will be of fairly limited numbers." Other officers are said to be pressing for more time, arguing that despite the war's long duration, counterinsurgency efforts have only begun to become effective in the last year or so.

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In a "Danger Room" interview with Spencer Ackerman, on wired.com, Petraeus elaborated further on a process of "thinning out" troops from more stable areas and "reinvesting" in less secure locations. A few combat brigades may actually return to the U.S., he said, but withdrawals beyond the 30,000 troops involved in this year's "surge" will depend on the security picture.

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Adding to doubts about the military's withdrawal plans are reports of three separate air base expansions, costing $100 million each, none of which are expected to be completed until the second half of 2011. According to the Washington Post, all are intended for use by U.S., not Afghan, forces. Overall, the report says, requests are now before Congress for $1.3 billion in additional fiscal 2011 funds for multiyear construction of military facilities in Afghanistan.

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A heavy cloud of doubt hangs over the military's claims, and future projections, of success. Firedoglake blogger Derrick Crowe recently cited an Afghan NGO Safety Office (ANSO) report saying nine Afghan provinces are experiencing more daily attacks since the latest surge began, while only one is experiencing fewer attacks. ANSO says the southern province of Helmand, site of the unsuccessful Marjah offensive earlier this year, saw insurgent attacks spike to 820 in the second quarter of this year, compared to 257 in the same period last year.

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Crowe also cites UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan figures showing Taliban assassinations doubling in the first four months of 2010, compared to a comparable period in 2009.  

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The offensive around the southern Afghan city of Marjah earlier this year failed, and a larger offensive planned for Kandahar province has been postponed.

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These trends, and the repeated tragic killings of innocent civilians during raids, are corroborated in reports emerging from Wikileaks' vast release of classified documents last month.

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All these factors - the enormous costs in lives and treasure, the deteriorating military situation, and the corresponding rise in popular opposition, are leading to a profound shift in viewpoints and votes in Congress. In July 114 members of the House of Representatives - 102 Democrats and 12 Republicans - voted against a $59 billion supplemental war funding bill, over half of which was for the Afghanistan war. Last year just 32 Democrats opposed a similar bill.  In May, 18 senators voted for an amendment by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., calling for a withdrawal timetable.

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President Obama plans another review of the situation in December. This could open the way for a major change in direction, with a timetable for prompt troop withdrawal and emphasis on providing civilian development aid to Afghanistan through international agencies including the United Nations while negotiations on peace and regional stability take place within Afghanistan and with its neighbors.

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Such a much-needed first step could be the start of a more thorough reorientation of U.S. international policy, away from efforts at overt and covert military domination and toward international cooperation and mutual assistance.

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In that way, we can put our national treasure, both human and monetary, at the service of human needs - at home and around the world.

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Photo: Soldiers return after an air assault mission in the Zabul province of Afghanistan, Oct. 15, 2009. (Spc. Tia P. Sokimson/CC)

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Protesters to GOP Kirk: hands off Social Security; jobs now

by: John Bachtell

August 27 2010

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LISLE, Ill. - Angered by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Kirk's repeated votes against extension of unemployment compensation and jobs creation, protesters crashed a posh Kirk fundraiser here Aug. 26.

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Chanting "Hands off Social Security" and "Jobs now!" demonstrators were blocked from entering the swanky affair by startled donors and eventually escorted out.

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Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill) has voted against working families too many times, and (his election to the US Senate) isn't going to happen," said Siobhan Kolar of Chicago Jobs with Justice. "He's a liar and a flip-flopper and we need to stop him."

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Kirk voted against the $26 billion HR 1586 Education and Medicaid Assistance Act, which among other things saved the jobs of 161,000 teachers including 6 thousand in Illinois alone. The bill saved the jobs of 158,000 other public employees including firefighters and police.

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Even with the bill's passage, 1,700 Chicago public school teachers and another 10,000 statewide will be fired adding to already over crowded classrooms.

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Kirk said he voted against the bill to prevent the budget deficit from getting worse. Most progressive economists maintain the deficit will get far worse with higher unemployment and deeper cuts to public services. JWJ, the AFL-CIO and others are calling for a tax on Wall Street speculators to close the deficit and fund jobs creation and public services.

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Kirk has also voted against extension of unemployment compensation 6 times for the same reason despite a 12% unemployment rate in Illinois.

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"In this economic time the people need a senator who is going to come in and work with the President and Congress to get resources back to communities, creating jobs and rebuilding the economy," said Rev. Michael Stinson, pastor of the General Assembly and Church of the First Born. "Mark Kirk is out of touch."

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"If the Republicans get control it's really going to be hard for President Obama to get legislation passed to rebuild this economy," said Stinson. "They want to go back to doing things like benefiting the upper crust of society and not the average people."

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Protesters were also concerned about where Kirk stands on privatization of Social Security and Medicare and termination of the Children's Health Insurance Program. According to DeLane Adams, Illinois State Director of Americans United Change, Kirk has been mum for months on where he stands on the detailed GOP privatization proposal put forward by Rep. Paul Ryan (WI).

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"There is a serious proposal for privatization from a Congressman who could one day be in a position to advance this Bush-era scheme for making Wall Street bankers richer.  We are just hoping to get a straight answer from Rep. Kirk on how he would vote. Right now, we're left to wonder if Kirk's silence has anything to do with the more than half a million dollars he has taken from Wall Street interests this year," he said.

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Photo: (John Bachtell/PW)

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The U.S. and Iraq: what now?

by: PW Editorial Board

August 27 2010

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Since President Obama took office, more than 90,000 U.S. troops have come home from Iraq. Last week, the Pentagon reported, the last U.S. combat brigade left. The number of U.S. combat troops there is now below 50,000, officials say. That fulfills Obama's pledge to pull out all but 50,000 troops by the end of this month, with the vow that the U.S. combat mission in Iraq is over. The question is: now what?

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Actually there are several big questions.

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To what extent are "combat troops" being replaced by Special Operations forces, other U.S. personnel, and private contractor mercenaries?

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Will all U.S. troops leave in December 2011, as the U.S.-Iraqi agreement specifies? Reports are that Special Operations forces will stay on. What about other U.S. forces and private contractors?

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What exactly is the U.S. role in Iraq between now and the end of 2011? And what will it be beyond that?

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What is the U.S. responsibility to the Iraqi people, and how should it be fulfilled?

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The president says the "transitional force" now remaining there will switch its focus from combat to "supporting and training Iraqi forces, partnering with Iraqis in counterterrorism missions, and protecting our civilian and military efforts."

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"Make no mistake: Our commitment in Iraq is changing - from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats," he told a convention of Disabled American Veterans in Atlanta Aug. 2.

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He told the veterans he wants to bring the Iraq war to a "responsible end." We applaud that. Certainly, as we read of new rounds of vicious violence around Iraq, leaving dozens of innocent Iraqis dead and wounded, we ponder the U.S. responsibility for this violence. As we read about Iraq's ravaged economy, the sewage running in the streets, the lack of electricity, the joblessness, we remember that it didn't have to be this way.

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Some Iraqis, most notably the Iraqi Communist Party - with a heroic record of resistance to Saddam Hussein's bloody dictatorship - warned that a U.S. invasion was not the way to get rid of Saddam.

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After the shock and awe invasion, instead of handing over power to Iraqi democratic forces, the U.S. installed its own occupation viceroy, fanned sectarian discord, opened the floodgates of contractor boondoggles and corrupt cronyism - all focused on making Iraq and its vast oil a junior partner to U.S. oil interests.

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Seven years later, the thousands of dead and maimed, the shattered families - Iraqis first of all, but also Americans - present the U.S. with a profound responsibility.

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Yes we do have a responsibility to help Iraq train its armed forces and security personnel so they can protect their own people, and to provide them with the necessary resources, which the Bush administration failed miserably to do. But it's not our job to manipulate their economy or their politics, to pick and choose who should govern their country.

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We do have a responsibility to help rebuild their hospitals, water systems, schools, cultural facilities - wrecked in the invasion or later under our watch or by our own contractors. But the U.S. should not be directing the money or deciding the projects.

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Unfortunately, we're seeing some warning signs that point in the wrong direction. A massive State Department presence in Iraq is being developed. Vast numbers of private U.S. contractors are deployed there. And notions are being floated that the U.S. military presence may "need" to continue beyond next year.

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Let's make sure all of our occupation of Iraq ends - military, economic and political.

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It's time to shed the old foreign policy habit, that sees Iraq as nothing but a giant oil well to fuel America's oil-based economy, and a geopolitical pawn and military launch-pad to keep the rest of the region's oil flowing our way. We just can't afford it - not in taxpayer dollars, not in human lives, not in the survival of our planet.

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Photo: (CC)
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