Day: August 10, 2008

Nader On Workers Rights

The rights of workers have been on the decline. It is time to reverse that trend and begin to give workers, the backbone of the US economy, the rights they deserve. Workers need a living wage not a minimum wage; access to health care and no unilateral reductions in medical benefits and pensions for current employees and retirees. Employers should not be able to avoid these benefits by hiring temporary workers or independent contractors. The privacy of employees needs to be vigorously protected. The notorious Taft-Hartley Act that makes it extremely difficult for employees to organize unions needs to be repealed. It has resulted in less than 10% of the private workforce being unionized, the lowest in 60 years and the lowest percentage in the western world. Non-union workers need upgraded rights against the likes of Wal-Mart.

If you have any thoughts please let me know.

Green Party Pleads With Anti-War Voters

Green Party leaders said today that antiwar voters will not get an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by voting for presumed Democratic nominee Barack Obama on Election Day.

Green leaders urged Americans who oppose the wars started by the Bush Administration with bipartisan support in Congress to vote instead for Green nominee Cynthia McKinney, running mate Rosa Clemente, and Green congressional candidates.

“Millions of voters plan to vote for Barack Obama in the hope that he’ll bring peace to Iraq and other nations in the region,” said Omar N. Lopez, Green candidate for the US House in Illinois (4th District) (http://www.omarlopez2008.org). “But his positions are really ‘McCain-Lite’ — he’ll continue many of the same belligerent foreign policies as the Bush-Cheney Administration that John McCain would. Mr. Obama supports a larger military in terms of both spending and personnel. We want to stop the US from being the world’s bully, and instead fund a peace dividend to deal with the economic, energy, and global warming crises.”

“We appeal to voters to take a look at the Green Party’s ‘Peace Slate’ of candidates, with Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente on the Green presidential ticket. A vote for a candidate who doesn’t represent your own ideals is a vote wasted,” said Mr. Lopez.

White Supremists Are Pulling For Obama

They’re not exactly rooting for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., but prominent white supremacists anticipate a boost to their cause if he becomes president. His election, they say, would trigger a backlash — whites rising up, a revolution of sorts — that they think is long overdue.

He’d be a “visual aid,” says former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, in trying to bring others around to the group’s view that whites have lost control of America. Obama’s election, says another, would jar whites into action, writing letters and handing out pamphlets rather than sitting around complaining.

While most Americans have little or no direct contact with white supremacists, organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center keep close tabs. The law center estimates some 200,000 people nationwide are active in such groups. These observers think the prospect of a white revolution is fantasy.

White supremacists — many call themselves nationalists or White activists, with a capital W — have had limited political success: Duke served in the Louisiana Legislature. And the public has periodically been unsettled by their events, such as the effort by uniformed Nazis to march through Skokie, Ill., the annual Aryan Nations meetings in Idaho and elsewhere or the FBI’s clashes with armed white supremacists in several Western compounds.

Found this article in the Detroit free Press and was wondering how accurate Dukes was in his prediction.  Sadly, I think he has a point—and you?

The Gospel Of Divine Sex

He has been dubbed the high priest of Catholic Kama Sutra, but Polish Friar Ksawery Knotz says that by giving married couples tips on how to practice divine sex he is simply doing God’s work.

“I certainly encourage married couples to pray for a good and happy sex life — it’s a way for them to become closer to God,” the 43-year-old Roman Catholic monk told AFP. “At first people are usually slightly shocked but at the same time happily surprised,” says Knotz, who like all Catholic clergy has taken a vow of celibacy.

“If you believe in God, then you believe God is involved in life, in love, marriage and in sex and sexuality — it seems natural to talk about sex to remove taboos and the label of sinfulness,” says the monk, who resides in a monastery of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in Stalowa Wola, southern Poland.

The friar admits the popular teachings of the Roman Catholic church on the subject of sex have been weak — if not downright dissuasive. “It’s been labeled taboo or sinful,” Knotz says, but is quick to point out that in keeping with the church’s teaching, he preaches only about the joys of sex restricted to marriage between a women and men. He encourages husbands to take their time to “fully appease” their wives. The monk explains he was originally inspired by the open atmosphere of his family home and the early teachings of late Polish-born Pope John Paul II who broached the subject of sexuality in his book.

Can Democrats Do It?–Op-ed

First of all, the political system is stacked in favor of the elites and the status quo. The American voter is just as much to blame for this as the power brokers. Why? They have allowed this type of crap to continue unchecked for decades. The election cycle is more about a continuation of the present power structure than looking for real alternatives that could possibly have real solutions for real problems.

I am so old that I can remember the promise of the Democrats and Bill Clinton. They built themselves as the party of the people that would look after the concerns of labor and minorities. After he, Clinton, was elected in 1992 the American people looked forward to his presidency with a feeling of hope. Does this sound familiar? He was gonna fix the ailing healthcare system, and the economy and revive our foreign policy towards a more humanitarian position. And yet those are the very items on the list for this election. So, what did we accomplish in the last 15 years?

I ask one more time, does any of that sound vaguely familiar?

Obama is promising change and trying to bring hope to the American people—that has been tried before—it was a dismal failure. Not because the Democrats tried and failed, but rather, they did not lift a finger to keep any of their promises. At the time the Senate was controlled by Democrats but yet they could not get anything done. Now, does that sound a bit familiar?

As Alan Maass wrote, “This is a perfect example of politics of “the lesser evilism”—the idea that people who believe in ideals of justice and peace should hold their nose and vote for Democrats, who believe in neither, as the lesser evil, in order to avoid the greater evil of the Republican Party.”

Sadly, history will repeat itself and change will not be coming to the political system. To answer the original question –NO CHANGE IS COMING!

Today In Labor History

10 August

The Ironworkers call a national strike against the American Bridge Co., a subsidiary of the U.S. Steel Corp. When the National Erectors Association declares the following May that its members – including the American Bridge Co. – will only operate open shops, the announcement is followed by widespread violence and the dynamiting of work sites – 1905

The Air Line Pilots Association is founded at a meeting in Chicago attended by 24 activists from across the country – 1931

Transport Workers Union leader Mike Quill and four other union men, leaving a picket line at IRT headquarters in New York City, are beaten by company goons, called “breakies,” then arrested for assault. Charges against the unionists were thrown out of court – 1935

Workers at the Studebaker auto plant in South Bend, Ind. agree to take pay cuts of from $12 to $20 weekly in an attempt to help the faltering automaker. The company ultimately folded 12 years later – 1954

I.W. Abel, president of the Steel Workers Union from 1965 to 1977, dies at age 79 – 1987

Georgia Backs Up

Still not talking about the state, but rather the armed conflict in southern Europe.

Georgia says its forces have withdrawn from the separatist enclave of South Ossetia, and that Russian troops are now in control of the regional capital.

An interior ministry spokesman told the BBC it was not a military defeat but a necessary step to protect civilians from a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

Georgia says Russia has brought an additional 10,000 soldiers across its frontiers, readying for a raid.

Georgian troops have pulled back to positions at or south of those held on 6 August, when the current hostilities began, said Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili.

Earlier, Georgia’s President Mikhail Saakashvili called for an immediate ceasefire to stop what he described as an “annihilation” of his country’s democracy.

In the absence of independent verification, there are conflicting figures about the casualties suffered on both sides but the numbers appeared to rise sharply on Saturday.

Based on Russian and South Ossetian estimates, the death toll on the South Ossetian side was at least 1,500. According to Moscow, all but a few of the dead were civilians.