People Before Profit blog

A “New Deal” Model for the Obama Cabinet

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:25:00 +0000

11-26-08, 11:21 am

As appointments and stories of appointments to President-elect Obama’s cabinet fill mass media, the interest in Doris Kearns Godwin’s fascinating study, Team of Rivals, which deals with Abraham Lincoln’s Civil War cabinet has been mentioned prominently.

The purpose of these accounts seems to be to encourage President Obama to establish something like a “national unity” cabinet. The idea is to put political rivals like Hillary Clinton prominent positions in major cabinet positions. In today's context, unlike Lincoln’s situation during the Civil War, it would mean having Democrats and perhaps one or two Republicans in the cabinet to the right of the President.

If the country were facing a non-nuclear World War and President Obama had already established the main lines of his domestic policies, this might make some sense. For example, Franklin Roosevelt appointed Henry Stimson, Herbert Hoover’s former Secretary of State, as Secretary of War as the US moved toward World War II. Roosevelt also gave his corporate “rivals” a major incentive to produce for the war effort by establishing a war production program that both guaranteed them high profits and was administered largely by their own executives.

Additional resources:

Podcast #88 - The Prospect for Democracy in China

Sao Paulo Proclamation – Socialism is the Alternative!

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:58:00 +0000

11-26-08, 10:54 am

The integral text of the Sao Paulo proclamation – Socialism is the alternative! of the 10th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, hosted by the Communist Party of Brazil, and held on November 21, 22 and 23 of 2008, in the city of Sao Paulo.

The world is facing a grave economic and financial crisis of large proportions. A capitalist crisis, which cannot be dissociated from its own nature and from its unsolvable contradictions, that is probably the gravest crisis since the Great Depression commenced by the 1929 crash. As always the workers and the people are the main victim.

The current crisis is an expression of a deeper crisis intrinsic to the capitalist system which demonstrates the Capitalism’s historical limits and the need for its revolutionary overthrow. The current crisis also poses an enormous threat of social and democratic regression and provides, as History has shown, a basis for authoritarian and militarist movements that demand more vigilance from the communist parties and all democratic and anti-imperialist forces.

Additional resources:

Podcast #88 - The Prospect for Democracy in China

Statement on Venezuela Elections

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:48:00 +0000

Venezuela Information Statement on Regional Elections in Venezuela

Regional elections held in Venezuela on November 23rd have been portrayed in the US media as a defeat for to the government of President Hugo Chávez, when in fact the results strongly favor his party, the PSUV. The vast majority of state governorships and mayoralties, including those in many strategic parts of the country such as the Orinoco Oil Belt, remain under pro-government leadership.

The majority of Venezuelan citizens voted for candidates aligned with the Chávez government. Due to this broad popular support, the PSUV and its allies won 77 percent of governorships and 80 percent of mayoralties. Even in Caracas, where the overarching metropolitan mayoralty went to the opposition, residents of the city's most populous district of Libertador elected a PSUV candidate as their local representative.

Voter turnout in the regional elections was a record-setting 65 percent. The electoral process was the 11th to occur in Venezuela in about a decade, and was deemed 'peaceful and exemplary' by OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza. He commented that the process was a powerful expression of the maturity of the country's democratic institutions as well as the trust that Venezuelans have in them. The National Electoral Council again proved its reputation for efficient and accurate electoral oversight by posting official results online less than 24 hours after the polls closed.

Additional resources:

Podcast #88 - The Prospect for Democracy in China

Educators Seek Policy Change to Cuba-Related Travel

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 04:43:00 +0000

11-26-08, 10:39 am

Members of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) have called for lifting all restrictions on educational exchanges with foreign countries, including exchanges with Cuba that are currently limited by the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Members ratified this policy position today at the Association' s Annual Meeting as they endorsed the Association' s 2009 Public Policy Agenda, the document that spells out the policy principles and positions that guide AASCU's advocacy on current and developing issues at the federal and state levels.

Additional resources:

Podcast #88 - The Prospect for Democracy in China

Venezuelan Elections: Absolute Transparency

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:36:00 +0000

11-25-08, 10:33 am

Who can doubt it? Observers from all parts and varying shades have attended the elections in Venezuela on November 23, 2007. They have reported with absolute freedom. The oligarchy cried out like mad to the world the coarse slander that the extension of the voting hours at the polling stations, giving the citizens the possibility to cast their vote, was intended to commit fraud, even though the National Election Council had previously decided to do so and had announced it.

This is a correct measure when adopted by the United States to facilitate the indirect election of the President of that nation, which is the model for the Venezuelan oligarchy, but it is wrong in Venezuela, even though these are not presidential elections, which are direct elections, the same as all the others for executive positions.

Additional resources:

Podcast #88 - The Prospect for Democracy in China

Mark Cuban: The Perils of Ayn Rand Populism

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:32:00 +0000

11-25-08, 10:28 am

Original source: Edge of Sports

It's amazing how an eight-minute phone call can cloud a charmed life. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, like Martha Stewart before him, is officially in hot water with the SEC. They allege that Cuban sold 600,000 shares in the search engine Mamma.com Inc. in June 2004, saving him $750,000. Cuban has responded publicly and angrily on his blog that the entire imbroglio is 'a product of gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion.' The entire story has generated as much buzz as a battalion of mosquitoes. That's due to the Dancing With the Stars alumnus at the center of it all. To some, he is a hero – the only true fan/owner in existence. To others, such as sportswriter Tony Kornheiser, he's just a 'preening schmo.' But almost everyone in the basketball universe gives the flamboyant 50-year-old billionaire a measure of respect.

Additional resources:

Podcast #88 - The Prospect for Democracy in China

Vietnam Vulnerable to Climate Change

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:29:00 +0000

11-25-08, 10:25 am

Hanoi (VNA) - Research carried out by Oxfam has revealed that Vietnam is among the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change despite being one of the nations least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.

This has raised worries over the possible impact of climate change upon the country’s impressive socio-economic development.

Additional resources:

Podcast #88 - The Prospect for Democracy in China

Hessians and Mercenaries in German Politics

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:27:00 +0000

11-25-08, 10:23 am

BERLIN – In George Washington’s day, “Hessians” was a synonym for mercenaries – German soldiers bought and sold by King George III to defeat the American Revolution. In today’s West German state of Hesse, where those soldiers came from, the word “mercenaries” is currently being applied to just four people, not foot soldiers but delegates to the state legislature. Were they bought and sold? By whom? The question is still open. What is known is that they betrayed their party, the Social Democrats, stymieing hopes to oust the local tyrant, minister president Ronald Koch. Their betrayal has consequences – not only for the six million people of Hesse. It is of symbolic importance.

Last January, after nine years in office, Koch, 50, campaigned for a third term for his so-called Christian Democrats (CDU) and their equally far-right ally, the Free Democrats. Correctly fearing that more and more Hessians were sick of them, he stooped to the nastiest of attacks against “young immigrant thugs” and “criminal foreigners.” His posters played on the foreign-sounding names of the leaders of both Social Democrats and Greens, and on the attempts of the new party, the Left, to get into the legislature: “Stop Ypsilanti, El-Wazir and the Communists”. His Free Democrat allies resorted to the worn old “Freedom or Socialism” slogan.

This time it didn’t work. Koch’s CDU got only 36.8 percent of the vote, a loss of more than 12 percentage points and its worst defeat in years. Andrea Ypsilanti, a dynamic, competent, pleasant-looking new figure on the political scene, whose program was more socially-conscious than that of her fellow Social Democrats on the national level, made big gains and achieved 36.7 percent. This was sensational – but still one tenth of a point behind Koch.

Additional resources:

Podcast #88 - The Prospect for Democracy in China

Chinese, Greek leaders Hold Talks

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:23:00 +0000

11-25-08, 10:19 am

Original source: Xinhua

ATHENS, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias agreed on Monday to lift the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership to a new height.

During his talks with Papoulias, Hu first thanked Greece for its support for the Beijing Olympic Games and the Paralympics. The Greek side also rendered support for Beijing in the torch lighting and relay, he added.

Sino-Greek relations now stand on a new historical starting point and are faced with broader prospects, the Chinese president said.

In recent years, China and Greece have seen rapid growth in two-way trade and bilateral cooperation in sea transportation has entered a new era, he added.

Additional resources:

Podcast #88 - The Prospect for Democracy in China

VA Disability Benefits Short-change Military Families

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:09:00 +0000

11-24-08, 1:06 pm

Pentagon death and disability payments for service personnel are far lower than private sector payouts for like causes, a Nobel Prize-winning economist says.

The families of civilian workers killed in an environmental accident routinely collect millions of dollars in court settlements but the official Pentagon payout to family survivors is a $100,000 “death gratuity” plus $400,000 in life insurance, write Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes in their new book “The Three Trillion Dollar War” (W.W. Norton). Bilmes is an expert on government finance at Harvard and economist Stiglitz teaches at Columbia University.

The $500,000 sum “is a small fraction of the value used in even the narrowest economic estimates of the value of a lost life, what a person might have earned had he/she been able to fulfill his/her normal life expectancy,” the authors say. Juries frequently award much higher amounts in wrongful civilian death lawsuits, including one recent award for $269 million.

Using the economists’ “value of statistical life” measure, of $7.2 million for an employee killed in a workplace or environmental accident, the “hidden cost” to the public given 4,300 U.S. deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds $30 billion, the authors write.

And the $7.2 million yardstick is short, too, because in many cases “those killed in Iraq were young men and women in peak physical condition, at the beginning of their working lives. The true economic loss from their deaths could be much higher,” Stiglitz and Bilmes say.

Similarly, veterans’ families are being short-changed in payouts for traumatic brain injuries(TBI) – injuries that often prevent a veteran from holding down a job and require frequent trips to the doctor.

“Even when TBI is diagnosed correctly, the maximum compensation the government provides is less than $60,000 per year in combined veterans’ and Social Security disability benefits,” Stiglitz and Bilmes write. “This is a fraction of the amount brain injury experts estimate for the typical lifetime costs for a person surviving a severe TBI, which exceeds $4 million.”

Stiglitz and Bilmes note that a recent analysis by the Veterans Disability Benefits Commission(VDBC) showed that “the dollar amounts paid to younger veterans and to those with severe mental disabilities do not come anywhere close to matching what they could have earned.”

VDBC found actual VA benefits covered only 69% of the income that a 35-year-old vet with a mental health disability could have expected to earn had the vet not become impaired, the authors write. As for vets suffering 100% mental disability, the gap between what they might have earned and what Uncle Sam pays them over their lifetimes is about $3.6 million.

While the budgetary costs of the war – what the Treasury and taxpayers shell out – may be as high as $2.7 trillion, before interest, the authors write this figure ignores the “social” costs of Iraq, costs that aren’t captured in the Federal budget but “nevertheless represent a real burden on society.” Stiglitz and Bilmes estimate these will add at least $300 to $400 billion more to the bill.

Not tallied in the official count, either, are such costs as those borne by vets’ families for their caretaker roles. Some family members must change or quit their jobs to attend the wounded. A 100 percent disabled veteran will get about $45,000 from the VA and perhaps $12,000 more in Social Security disability pay, plus some health care or other benefits.

“But all of this adds up to a fraction of what it costs to look after a young man (or woman) who needs help getting dressed, eating, washing, and performing other daily activities, as well as constant medical attention, 24 hours every day, seven days per week,” the authors point out.

“Someone else – perhaps a wife, husband, parent, or volunteer in the community – is bearing the real cost of providing this care.” And in one in five families of wounded returning veterans, a family member has been forced to quit a job to work full-time.

To date, Stiglitz and Bilmes write, there have been more than 65,000 “non-mortal casualties” among U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, of whom 14,000 are so seriously injured they were unable to continue their service.

More than a quarter of a million veterans returned from the front have been treated in a VA facility and 80% of them have applied for disability benefits, “which means that over 200,000 men and women who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan have been left with a physical or mental impairment,” the authors say. “Before the war is over – and in its aftermath – the numbers are likely to more than double.”

--Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based public relations consultant who formerly worked for the Chicago Daily News and as a columnist for wire services. Reach him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com.

E-Vote Questions Linger Over Cleland's 2002 Loss

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 07:00:00 +0000

11-24-08, 12:56 pm

Original source: The Atlanta Progressive News (APN) ATLANTA - Lingering questions regarding former US Sen. Max Cleland's (D-GA) loss in 2002 to US Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) are resurfacing in the last days of Democrat Jim Martin's Run-off Election with Chambliss.

Whistleblower Chris Hood, former Diebold employee, spoke with Atlanta Progressive News in detail about an illegal patch, which may or may not be the same '0808' patch Diebold now admits its workers applied during the 2002 Primary Election.

As previously reported in 2006 by Atlanta Progressive News, Hood and another whistleblower, Rob Behler, had given independent accounts regarding illegal Diebold patches used in 2002, to Rolling Stone magazine, as well as Black Box Voting (BBV) and Wired News magazine, respectively.

Hood told Rolling Stone in 2006 that he and other Diebold employees were instructed by then-Diebold President, Robert Urosevich, to install the patch on some 5,000 machines in Dekalb and Fulton Counties in July 2002.

'Those are the Democratic hot spots. If you can control those 2 counties, you can control the election. We don't need to bother with every county; we need to only bother with the Democratic counties,' Hood told Atlanta Progressive News.

'We were provided a patch to put into the system that was supposed to fix the clock,' Hood said in an interview with Velvet Revolution (VR) posted on Youtube.com.

'It came to me there was no clock fix involved at all. The clock still would not keep time after I patched 56 machines,' Hood said.

'I must tell you, there was more than one patch that took place in Georgia as well,' Hood told APN, adding that he had previously spoken about the one patch he personally applied although he had knowledge of others.

'There were patches applied in the warehouse in the machines before they went out to the various counties,' Hood said.

Hood's story corroborates that of Rob Behler, another former Diebold employee, who told BBV there were several patches illegally applied on Georgia voting machines in the lead-up to the 2002 elections and that efforts were made to prevent the State from learning about them.

Behler recalls an incident where he admitted to Prof. Britain Williams, of Kennesaw State University, the State's expert on its E-voting systems and certification, that a patch was being applied to the machines prior to Williams's testing of the machines. Behler said Diebold officials reprimanded him for telling Williams.

Behler told BBV that he had noticed many of the machines were malfunctioning prior to their certification by the State. Behler said he had contacted Urosevich personally and that this led to Diebold workers piling in vans and dispatching them to apply patches to the E-voting machines.

Hood told APN he remembers the workers in the vans, adding they were manual laborers given a set of instructions by Diebold.

'It was told we have to patch all the machines. So there was a big rush, in Dekalb County, there was a crew there, on site, manpower workers, unskilled, put into sort of a production situation. The patch was applied and there were these various steps. Six to 8 people they brought in, in a warehouse,' Hood said.

Bev Harris of BBV alleges that she accessed Diebold's FTP site and downloaded copies of at least 8 patches used in Georgia, which Diebold posted on its then-unsecured website for employees to access. These patches have been posted on her websites.

Hood confirmed to APN that the FTP site did exist and that it was unsecure at the time.

Diebold has admitted to one patch, the '0808,' which may or not be the same one brought to light by Hood, although they had initially denied such a patch ever existed.

Former Secretary of State Cathy Cox asked Diebold-now known as Premier Elections Systems-for 'confirmation that 0808 patch was applied to all systems; confirmation that patch was not grounds for requiring system to be recertified at national and state level; as well as verifiable analysis of overall impact of patch to the voting system,' in a copy of a 'punch list' sent to Diebold after the 2002 election obtained by Atlanta Progressive News.

Diebold responded 'will confirm 0808 patch on all units at time of firmware upgrade (to be scheduled in coordination with the State and counties),' not addressing the issue of legality.

Diebold did not address the issues directly in their December 10, 2002, response to Cox. 'We are happy to discuss your concerns about the Deliverables, as well as your Punch List items, at out meeting scheduled the morning of Tuesday, December 17, 2002,' President Robert Urosevich wrote.

Prof. Williams testified in discovery during the recent VoterGA lawsuit that one patch dated August 08, 2002, was applied and that it was illegal, according to an analysis and partial transcript of the case discovery obtained by APN.

'According to Williams, it was to prevent a screen freeze,' Favorito said.

Williams initially denied the existence of the patch. Again, Behler claims Diebold attempted to keep Williams in the dark about Diebold's so-called dirty laundry because Williams was in charge of the State testing.

However, Behler claims Williams did know about the patch at the time when he first denied it.

Hood told APN that he had previously worked with Williams in Maryland when Williams was a contractor for Diebold.

Cox was furious when she learned about the patch, Hood recalled. There were 'conversations and emergency meetings--it was quite a serious thing at Diebold, she was threatening holding the funding back.'

'Cathy did not know about the patch, she found out about it inadvertently. They weren't supposed to know about this. Keep it quiet was the word.'

'There was a problem, Diebold acted illegally,' Hood said, adding he believes Diebold provided Cox with concessions to add value on to their contract with the State.

'In return, there's concessions made. It always comes down to money and concessions,' Hood said.

'These are little payoffs to get the election director to look the other way. She can't win by fighting them in the street, that would have made her look bad for getting the machines in the first place,' Hood said.

'She had an incentive to cover up the inadequate performance in the 2002 election,' Favorito said.

'They could have given her staff, extra machines, extra help, supplies, it could've come from any direction you could imagine,' Hood said.

In the end, Cox did nothing to hold Diebold accountable for the patch they admitted to, and did nothing to pursue the claims of other patches. Diebold received their full payment and their machines are still in use in Georgia.

'There was not accountability in the Secretary of State's office for anything,' Favorito said.

Hood gave a copy of one patch that he had downloaded on his computer to computer science expert, Stephen Spoonamore, to analyze.

Hood is unsure whether it's the same patch he applied that day in 2002, but he believes the file, 'rob-georgia.zip,' is the same one based on the date associated with it.

Williams has denied knowing anything about a rob-georgia.zip file, Favorito said.

'The one I had was downloaded from a Diebold site, at the time it was open to the public. Whether the 2 matched is hard to say,' Hood said.

Hood didn't keep the flash drive he used that day in July 2002 because 'when I did the patching in Georgia, I firmly believed it was a legitimate patch approved to fix the clock, had no reason to save it, suspect it, or anything else.'

'We've got a chain of custody issue- we don't know whether the patch Spoonamore looked at is the same one put on the machines,' Favorito said.

'I reviewed the patch they put in Georgia in 2002 that many of them claim is a clock function. It's not a clock function. It's a comparator function. It asked for 3 different fields on the front end, that's information coming down from the screen into the operating system,' Spoonamore said in an interview with VR posted on the website, Youtube.com.

The patch 'sits on the operating system in an entry platform, at that point, this piece of code asks the three fields, I don't know what the fields are, what the totals are; compares them against each other and sends them somewhere else,' Spoonamore said.

Brad Friedman of Bradblog.com explained why Spoonamore may not have been able to detect the full purpose of the patch: 'The patches are quite literally that. They don't have the full code in them. You have to sort of guess what they do. It's only part of the source code.'

'It's like reading five pages in a novel,' Friedman told Atlanta Progressive News.

'Well, if it were me and I were to guess what that code is, it's a vote-flipping, it's not a clock function, that I know,' Spoonamore said.

Spoonamore refers to reviewing a patch he says was installed two days before the 2002 General Election. Hood and Favorito concur that Spoonamore likely misspoke and meant to say the Primary Election, although such a patch would have still been in place in the General.

A poll by American media put Cleland ahead of Chambliss in mid-October 2002, 47% to 41%. Pollsters were shocked when Chambliss won 53-46, a 12 point jump for Chambliss; this was the first year Georgia, or any US state, used statewide electronic voting.

To be sure, some polls showed the race tightening in the days leading up to the race, which many attribute to the negative campaign ads Chambliss ran regarding Cleland.

The Saturday before the election, an AJC/WSB poll showed Cleland ahead 48-45. However, that would still mean an 8 point jump in the election outcome for Chambliss.

'If you look at the case of Saxby Chambliss, that's ridiculous, the man was not elected. He lost election by 5 points, Max Cleland won, they flipped the votes,' Spoonamore said.

Democratic Governor Roy Barnes also lost in a shocking upset that year.

'All those lower races trended Democratic and all of a sudden you get to the top of the ballot and they flip Republican,' Garland Favorito of elections integrity plaintiff, VoterGA, told APN.

Because of this, Favorito says he is 'suspicious' and 'skeptical.'

The same machines that were exposed to at least one illegal patch in 2002 are still in use in Georgia, Favorito said, and the patch or patches could still be there.

Favorito said the machines were re-certified in 2005, but the State has not released the certification reports from prior to then; and Diebold will not allow anyone to review the source code for its E-voting software.

'The patch could have been made in a way that the software upgrade would not have impacted it because we don't know what the patch did,' Favorito said.

'Let's say it's a devious patch. They could have upgraded the software and it would still be in place,' Favorito said.

'Any time you hear of things that cause people to have less confidence in the voting process, we're troubled. We're watching the situation closely, we're watching the [VoterGA] lawsuit closely,' Martin Matheny, spokesperson for the Georgia Democratic Party, told APN.

--Matthew Cardinale is the News Editor for Atlanta Progressive News and is reachable at matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com.

Joseph Stiglitz: World Economic Crisis, a Difficult and Long Way Out

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:56:00 +0000

11-24-08, 12:53 pm

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 23 (acn) Nobel Economy Laureate Josepth Stiglitz said in the Dominican Republic that the way of the current world economic crisis entails a difficult and long process.

During a two-day seminar underway in the Dominican Republic, Stiglitz said that it is difficult not to question the basic aspects of economic science when you observe the huge scope of the current crisis, PL news reported.

The seminar titled “The Emerging World Financial Order: a Regional Perspective” was aimed at considering suggestions on the world crisis from the Latin American and Caribbean views.

In his address to participants at the seminar, President Leonel Fernandez and the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Barcena, agreed that the origin of the crisis lie in the US real estate market speculation and its further spread to the rest of the economic sector.

Both Fernandez and Barcena blamed the weakness of state regulatory mechanisms and the lack of accounting transparency for the phenomenon. President Fernandez warned that the fall of markets of developed economies will pose a threat on the stability and governability of underdeveloped countries.

In that direction, Stiglitz called for a reconsideration of economic philosophy and the role of developed and emerging states in order to face the world quivering situation. He said that the impact by the crisis on underdeveloped nations will be “very serious” mainly due to inequalities.

The seminar, which closes sessions today, is also being attended by Honduras´ President Manuel Zelaya, Haiti´s Prime Minister Michelle Pierre Louis and by representatives of several countries of the region.

A Call for a National Economic Recovery Act

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 06:53:00 +0000

11-24-08, 12:50 pm

Make no mistake about it, this election was won on bread and butter economic issues. While John McCain and Sarah Palin focused on the rhetoric of patriotism, 'trickle-down' economics, 'staying the course' on Bush's tax cuts and family values; they also embraced the very economic policies that both undermine the middle class and subvert the security of American family life.

American families voted with their feet and pocket books. They wanted less pious rhetoric, and more policies geared toward a healthy economy, secure jobs, decent health care, affordable housing, quality public education, renewable energy and a sustainable environment. Barack Obama understood that.

What the election results told us is we need a President who understands and believes in coherent, comprehensive and equitable policies that promote sustainable and healthy economic growth. What we need is a leader who in his First Hundred Days in office will deal effectively with the housing crisis and demand legislative oversight and accountability of those financial, insurance and other corporations that have, or will be, bailed out.

The first thing that President-elect Obama should do is to begin to restore the confidence of the American people by demonstrating that he is willing to provide leadership; that he is willing to take immediate and bold policy initiatives to put the economy back on the right track. Toward this end he should call a meeting as soon as possible with Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, and Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House. At this meeting he should propose that they call Congress back into a special session to consider emergency legislation: The National Economic Recovery Act of 2008.

The legislation would include:

* Investment in alternative energy development and new green collar jobs;

* An extension of unemployment benefits;

* Expansion of the Food Stamp program;

* Re-negotiation of mortgage terms for those about to lose their homes;

* An increase in the Community Economic Development discretionary budget to $250 million a year so that community economic development corporations (CDCs) can create more business and employment opportunities in economically distressed neighborhoods and communities that have been hit hardest by the sub-prime loan crisis; and most important

* A major economic stimulus package that would provide $250 billion in direct assistance to states and local governments for infrastructure development. This kind of direct federal spending for community and economic development would be far more productive than rebate checks. It will create jobs and crucial investments where it counts and is needed.

It is the smartest investment we can make as a nation. Just think about some recent events: a bridge in Minneapolis collapsing; the electric grids failing last summer; Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans; commuter traffic logjams; and a sewage system breaking down in Honolulu are but a few examples of our outdated and crumbling infrastructure. In communities across our nation, our schools, mass transit systems, water and sewer plants, hospitals, bridges, levees, railway beds, ports and subways are in disrepair. If we are to participate in an increasingly competitive international economy we must rehabilitate our infrastructure.

It is entirely possible that Democratic congressional leadership is convinced that it would take more time to put together a coherent and comprehensive package--or that the lame-duck Bush administration would block it. If that is the case President- elect Obama should tell the American people that this legislation would be his first order of business immediately following the inauguration in January. That is the kind of leadership we need. The tasks before us will not be easy but the sooner we begin, the better.

--Professor Arthur Blaustein was chairman of the President's National Advisory Council on Economic Opportunity during the Carter administration and was appointed to the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities by Bill Clinton. He teaches urban studies, politics and community economic development at the University of California, and his most recent books are Make a Difference: America's Guide to Volunteering and Community Service and The American Promise.

December 2008 Poetry

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:26:00 +0000

A Little Song About Charity (Tune of Matty Grove) The boss came around at Christmas-- Oh smiling like a lamb-- He made me a present of a pair of gloves And then cut off my hands-- Oh and then cut off my hands. The boss came around on my birthday With some shoes of a rich man's brand. He smiled like a priest as he cut off my feet Then he said: 'Go out and dance-- Oh he said: 'Go out and dance.' The boss came around on May Day. He said: 'You may parade.' Then his cops shot us down in the open street And they clubbed us into jail. Oh they clubbed us into jail. The preacher says on Sunday: 'Turn ye the other cheek.' Don't turn it to the boss on Monday morn: He may knock out your teeth. So listen to me workers: When the boss seems kind and good Remember the stain on the cutting tool Is nothing but your blood-- Oh it's nothing but your blood. If you love your wife and daughters, And if you love your sons, And if you love the working class Then keep your love at home. Don't waste it on the cockroach boss But keep your love at home. --Thomas McGrath From 'Longshot O'Leary's Garland of Practical Poesie.' © 1949 by International Publishers, New York.

Good Days Coming  

Everything changes, the wheel  of the law turns without pause.  After the rain, good weather.  In the wink of an eye  The universe throws off  its muddy clothes.  For ten thousand miles  the landscape  Spreads out like a beautiful brocade.  Gentle sunshine.  Light breezes. Smiling flowers,  Hang in the trees, amongst the sparkling leaves,  All the birds sing at once.  Men and animals rise up reborn.  What could be more natural?  After sorrow comes happiness.

  --Ho Chi Minh

CD Review: Pete Seeger: At 89

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:22:00 +0000

PETE SEEGER: AT 89 Appleseed Recordings, 2008 '...a time of peace, I swear it's not too late'

It's a busy Saturday afternoon on a main drag in New York's Hudson River Valley and Pete Seeger can be found standing vigil aside a flurry of traffic as he's done each week for five years. Gripping a 'pace' banner, Pete is brightly smiling at speeding passersby who serenade him with a symphony of horn-honks. And though some of the passing cars instead sport angry drivers shouting pro-war, pseudo-patriotic slogans, Seeger has seen too much in his lifetime to falter. He quietly smirks at the rest of this peace vigil's participants and shakes his head. Pete's lived through union-busting assaults, the Peekskill Riot, HUAC, the Blacklist, agitated flag-wavers and violent Klansmen. He's seen a hell of a lot and usually comes out of the experience with a song.

While 'At 89' does not attempt to chronicle all of the folk legend's life, it certainly offers the listener an excellent overview of much of its most colorful moments. Starting with the powerful cover photos of elder statesman Seeger, captured in time by photographers Econosmith, here's a collection that offers a brilliant picture of how much one can accomplish in a near-ninety year period.

Featured prominently throughout this 32-selection CD is Pete's trademark 5-string banjo, an instrument he nearly single-handedly brought to light. But of course his renowned 'split tenor,' shakier than in previous decades but still earnest, remains what we most recall about Pete's stage presence. Not only as a singer, but as a speaker, and this disc also presents his recorded descriptions of how some of these songs came to be. To offer up an aural image of the classic Seeger concert, several vocal groups can be heard throughout much of At 89, including Work o' the Weavers (the group best described as the 'Beatlemania' of Weavers' music), the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus (an offshoot of the Clearwater organization Pete founded), the After Hours Quartet and the Hudson River Sloop Singers. The extra voices allow Pete to be in his favorite element and of course help out with some of the high notes he has trouble with these days. But Seeger just cannot stop leading groups of people in song.

The selections included here are an interesting mix of the known and the little-known, as well as some brand new compositions. Song subjects include environmentalism, peace, family, sustenance and spirituality, but he throws surprises into this collection, as one would hope. Some of the songs are those Pete would probably prefer to not have to sing any longer, but in light of current times, he reproduces here 'Waist Deep in the Big Muddy' (the 1968 performance of which on the Smothers Brothers television show helped to break that damned blacklist), 'Bach at Treblinka' (performed beautifully by Martha Sandefer, sounding like a latter-day Ronnie Gilbert) and 'When I was Most Beautiful,' his song written to a Japanese poet's post-Hiroshima piece, performed by his niece Sonya Cohen. There's also a spoken word selection given from the perspective of Native Americans responding to the original European settlers, a lesson unto itself, which includes music by the Menominee nation.

Throughout this album, Pete cites problems and solutions, challenges and celebrations. Naming a few villains along the way (including Rudolph Giuliani, infamous hawk and community garden destroyer), the songs remind us of why we fight. And long-time Seeger fans will rejoice at a new version of the Weavers' classic 'Tzena, Tzena, Tzena', performed by Pete and the Walkabout Clearwater Chorus. The original Hebrew lyrics are here but, complimented by Arabic words as well, this piece rings with soaring harmonies and the message of peace in the Holy Land.

At 89 allows listeners the chance to look into the heart of one of the very founders of the folk revival, to hear his latest compositions and some songs from over the generations, twenty-six of which are now recorded for the first time. Crystal production by David Bernz, another Beacon NY-based musician/activist, brings it all into the 21st century without struggle. Clearly, Pete Seeger remains a deeply relevant figure in 2008 and there's little opportunity for him to take that much-needed rest. Just ask the anti-war crowd at the Saturday peace vigil brandishing `Honk 4 Peace' signs. Better still, ask the malignant Archie Bunker clones flipping but half a peace-sign as they harshly screech by Seeger's non-violent revolution.

Book Review: The Politics of Immigration

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:15:00 +0000

11-24-08, 10:12 am

The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers By Jane Guskin and David L. Wilson Published by Monthly Review Press, 2007.

Jane Guskin and David L. Wilson have written an important book on immigrants and immigration policy. Though short, The Politics of Immigration packs quit a punch. It's clear, concise language and easy-to-read format makes it a must have for activists, academics and ordinary working class people interested in immigration.

In fact, part of what makes The Politics of Immigration so good is its accessibility. Each section is broken down into over-arching questions, and then sub-divided into a set of other questions that fall into that category – and most answers are only one page long.

While some may argue that more attention should be paid to detail (with longer, more exhaustive arguments or answers), for the non-specialist trying to get a grasp on a very complex issue, Guskin and Wilson's short book is informative without being intimidating. It is truly an inviting read.

While short, The Politics of Immigration addresses most of the questions being debated today. For example, how many of us have heard someone ask, 'Do immigrants pay taxes?' Guskin and Wilson answer: 'Some 71 percent of immigrants are naturalized citizens or legal residents, and pay all the same taxes as US born citizens. The other 29 percent of immigrants – those who lack legal status – mostly pay the same taxes too. Everyone pays local sales taxes, and contributes to property taxes.'

Additionally, most illegal or out-of-status immigrants contribute to Social Security and other government programs without the expectation of receiving any benefits. For example, 'Out-of-status workers and their employers also pay an estimated $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security taxes each year,' which amounts to about 10 percent of Social Security's annual surplus, 'and about $1.5 billion in Medicaid taxes. Very few of these workers are able to get back what they paid in,' Guskin and Wilson conclude.

Guskin and Wilson also place the questions and answers within political context. For example, they address the role that employers play in using out-of-status or illegal immigrant labor as a wedge to drive down wages in certain industries, especially unionized industries.

Unfortunately, I know many union brothers and sisters who claim that 'Immigrants drive down wages.' Guskin and Wilson address this. They write, 'With no access to a social safety net [like unemployment benefits] when they are out of work, undocumented immigrants can't be too selective about the jobs they take. If they complain about low wages or unacceptable working conditions, employers may threaten to turn them in to immigration authorities. Fear of deportation keeps these workers from reporting safety violations to government agencies, even when they are injured on the job.'

Most importantly, the authors write, 'Their lack of status makes them a vulnerable underclass of workers that employers can exploit with near impunity,' which drives down wages for all workers.

Unfortunately, most work-place enforcement laws currently punish workers, not employers. According to Guskin and Wilson, 'Employers rarely face any consequences, while workers are generally deported.'

In fact, the best way to insure union wage, safety and health care standards are consistent is for union, community and religious leaders to advocate for immigrant workers. Through amnesty programs and stricter punishments for employers who violate health, safety and prevailing wage laws, we can stop the 'race to the bottom.'

While The Politics of Immigration doesn't answer every question, it does provide a framework by-which we can begin to understand a complex issue. It provides humanity and warmth, while reminding us that though we may come from different countries and cultures, though we may speak different languages, we have a lot in common.

--Tony Pecinovsky lives is St. Louis, Missouri.

Book Review: Democracy's Prisoner

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:12:00 +0000

11-24-08, 10:08 am

Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent by Ernest Freeberg Boston, Harvard University Press, 2008.

US Attorney General Thomas Gregory persuaded Congress in 1917 to pass the Espionage Act, which contained provisions for government censorship of public discussion of the First World War. It was designed, ostensibly, to protect US prosecution of the war from sabotage by German-sympathizers and provocateurs. In practice, particularly amid the sudden patriotic furor to 'make the world safe for democracy,' the Espionage Act became the legal warrant (N.B. unchallenged as to its constitutionality, right up to its repeal after the armistice) to repress any and all political groups that criticized the war, once it had been declared. Even a number of prominent socialists, among them Upton Sinclair and Charles Edward Russell, urged their party to support Wilson's program, for fear that 'if Germany wins, good night to Socialism.'

In the meantime, the Espionage Act empowered the Postmaster General to censor any publications which he, personally, deemed seditious and inimical to the war-effort. Consequently numerous left-wing and socialist publications disappeared, leaving the hawkish conservative media unchallenged in the realm of public debate in print. It was, therefore, only by spoken word that many radicals mounted a challenge to Wilson's war-machine.

In the summer of 1918, while the Wilson administration pursued its military intervention in Europe, Eugene Debs delivered a speech in Canton, Ohio, during which he exhorted the audience to defy the government draft, and above all to recognize that the World War was a struggle amongst imperialist nations, a redrawing of the map of global capitalist powers, in which the international working class was the hapless instrument.

Shortly thereafter, Debs was arrested and convicted of violating the Espionage Act. His case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the Canton speech effectively impeded the federal government in its execution of war, and that it satisfied the legal criterion of a 'bad tendency.' Under this test, a jury could convict a speaker if they concluded that the 'natural consequences' of their speech would be harmful to the operations of government.

Here, Freeberg documents an interesting convergence between World War I radical activity and the ongoing moderate vs. conservative legal debate. Debs' case quickly became the rallying point for an unprecedented interest in First Amendment rights. For the Socialist Party, free-speech was a point of leverage to liberate their most esteemed and accomplished comrade and attract new initiates to its dwindling membership, as well as to indict the repressive State apparatus Wilson and his Attorney General had set in motion. Then, in the wake of the armistice, the Espionage Act was repealed. The jailed Debs became a figure of sympathy to the public, even outside radical circles. Along with him, hundreds of socialists, wobblies, religious pacifists, and immigrants remained incarcerated. After the peace, public opinion began to turn from hawkish paranoia toward forgiveness and petitioning for mass amnesty for prisoners of dissent. In 1920, Debs campaigned for the presidency from prison. The campaign, even though pilloried in the conservative press, by that token kept the issue of free speech, and the persecution of dissent, in the public eye.

For the first time, Freeberg argues, civil liberties emerged as an integral part of political debate. The First World War was the first real test of the First Amendment, a test the US failed. Yet the mass movement surrounding prisoners of dissent in general, and Debs's presidential campaign in particular, focused political discussion on civil liberties, their legal interpretation, and the limits to judicial restraints on free speech. Indeed, in 1919, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who had previously upheld Debs's conviction under the 'bad tendency' test, changed tack and suggested that government should only interfere with free speech when it presented the 'present danger of an immediate evil.' Even after Debs’s release in 1921, the progressive campaign in defense of free speech continued, culminating in the ACLU and other civil liberties groups.

This is a fine book, engrossing both as a biographical narrative about Debs, as well as a history of a pivotal transition in the political discourse of the nation. This transition was decisive, not so much in establishing free speech once and for all, but rather in opening a space in which the limits and possibilities of free speech could be considered. Ultimately, as powerful a protection as free speech, Freeberg argues, 'is no one thing, but the crossroads for competing claims about the relative value of individual liberty and public order, and the freedoms and responsibilities of democratic citizenship.'

--Will Hackman is a student at the University of Chicago.

Sagebrush Noir: The Western as 'Social Problem' Film

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:03:00 +0000

11-24-08, 9:59 am

Thirty-five miles east of the dusty town of Socorro in Southeast New Mexico, the first atomic weapon was tested on July 16, 1945, 35. The weapon would, within the month, be credited with ending the Second World War. It would also, as it was in Robert Aldrich's 'Kiss Me Deadly,' be likened to a Pandora's Box which had the capability to destroy humanity.

The historical moment as well as the locale was highly prescient, helping to usher in the decade of Classic Noir and giving birth to it's mutant offspring which I've chosen to call 'Sagebrush Noir.'

The roots of film noir, as we know, sprang out of an earlier time, just following the horrific destruction wrought by World War I. That War ended an era of relative stability in Europe and the world, albeit a period, plagued by the ceaseless machinations of international capitalism and its military tool, fueled by nationalist aspirations and the quest for new markets.

The great disillusionment following this classic imperialist war, led, particularly in Germany, to a rise of rebellious films, the first of which, Robert Weine's 'Cabinet of Caligari,' portrayed, at least before it's subversion by the censors, the murderous authoritarianism which had led to the war. Produced in 1919, written and directed by men who had first hand knowledge of trench warfare and it's cost in lives and sanity, it also came on the heels of the wave of revolution which briefly swept across Europe and Russia.

In Europe such movements were quickly defeated.

Reaction and inflation followed. This would lead to even darker films such as 'The Blue Angel' and 'M.' With the rise of Fascism, many of these film-makers fled Germany, ultimately ending up working in the Hollywood dream factory... The most noted: Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak and Billy Wilder, would create the first and best of what would, after the Second World War, be labelled Film Noir.

There were some pioneer American noirs such as Rowland Brown's 'Beast of the City' and Mamoulian's 'City Streets' and even a few embryonic westerns such as Wyler's exceedingly grim version of the much filmed 'Three Godfathers' story, 'Hell's Heroes,' shot in 1930, But it wasn't until films like 'Stranger on the Third Floor' and 'Maltese Falcon' (both 1941) and more iconically noir works such as Wilder's masterpiece, 'Double Indemnity' in 1944, that the genre truly came into its own.

Other classics soon followed: Edward Dmytryk's 'Murder My Sweet' (1944), Lewis Milestone's 'Strange Love of Martha Ivers,' 'The Lady From Shanghai' by Orson Welles, and the first Anthony Mann noirs such as 'T-Men' (1947) and Raw Deal (1948). Some studios took to Noir more readily than others. Warners, Universal, and, in particular, RKO adapted early to the new genre, one possible reason being the relatively inexpensive, fast shooting involved in what they considered gangster programmers which relied heavily on cheap sets and single source lighting ('Our films were lit with cigarette butts' – Robert Mitchum).

Since the studios considered themselves factories engaged in supplying a constant demand to the theater chains, which, up until the monopoly was broken up in the late 1940s, were owned by the individual studios, and since each studio employed a company of stars, character actors, directors, writers, composers and cinematographers, it shouldn't be surprising to see certain genres blending with one another. With Western and Gangster genres this trend began to appear around 1943 with William Wellman's 'OxBow Incident' and, three years later, with John Ford's 'My Darling Clementine' (a film as much about Post-War readjustment and a search for roots as Wyler's 'Best Years of Our Lives' or Dmytryk's 'Til the End of Time').

For purposes of brevity, I plan to touch on four early Sagebrush Noirs which seemed to contain an abundance of elements from both the Gangster and Western genres: Raoul Walsh's 'Pursued' (1947), Robert Wise's 'Blood on the Moon', and two early westerns by Anthony Mann: 'The Furies' (1950) and 'Devil's Doorway' (1950).

***

PURSUED: (1947, Warner Brothers. Director: Raoul Walsh)

This film advanced the career of Robert Mitchum, a new star, and one who had already had a background in noir with the classic 'Out of the Past' as well as in other noir-tinged works as 'Undercurrent', 'Crossfire' and 'When Strangers Marry.' Along with 'The Furies,' 'Pursued' qualifies as one of the few Freudian Westerns in that the protagonist, Jeff Callam, has been adapted and raised by the Callams following the unsolved mass murder of his family. He is plagued by nightmares involving gunfire and flashing spurs but he can never clearly see the faces of his parent's killers. In the course of the film he loses a coin toss with his step-brother and goes off to fight in the Spanish American War.

On returning, he is forced to kill his step-brother in a gunfight and finds himself tormented by what he sees as an unnatural love for his step-sister. Combined with his recurring nightmares, Jeff proves a very modern figure, very like a shell-shocked G.I. returning from World War II. James Wong Howe, who had the same year, shot the classic noir boxing film, 'Body and Soul,' with John Garfield, brought a dark brooding look to the film, with the night scenes providing a visual portrait of the protagonist's inner torment.

***

BLOOD ON THE MOON : (1948) RKO. Director: Robert Wise

A year later, Mitchum appeared in another Sagebrush Noir for his home studio. RKO programmers lacked many of the production values of films coming from Warners and while 'Moon' contained nowhere near the psychological angst that freighted 'Pursued' it was, quite literally, a much darker film.

The opening scene, where the protagonist, Jim Garry (Mitchum) is awakened and nearly killed by a cattle stampede, is shot in near total darkness by chiarascuro genius and RKO house cinematographer Nicholas Musaraca, who was responsible for many of the studios most striking film noirs and also worked with the Val Lewton horror unit.

Many scenes are shot in saloons, cabins, and other cramped spaces utilizing the single source lighting which, initially adopted to disguise cheap or sketchy sets, quickly became the signature lighting for film noir, instantly evoking menace, uncertainty, and the world of the nightmare. A viewer presented with the chiariascuro shock of Charles McGraw's brutal, chiseled features in 'Moon,' instantly evokes the actor's introductory scenes in Siodmak's 'The Killers,' producing in the audience a wave of anxiety comparable to a combat vet's attack of post-traumatic stress.

The film also benefited by a supporting class of RKO contract players who'd cut their teeth on a number of early film noirs. Actor such as McGraw, Frank Faylen, who had recently portrayed the sneering male nurse/tormentor of Ray Milland in Billy Wilder's 'Lost Weekend' and Steve Brodie, fresh from Anthony Mann's 'Desperate,' a film which, like Ray's 'They Live By Night,' and Joseph H. Lewis' 'Gun Crazy,' borrowed heavily from the lives and bloody careers of Bonnie and Clyde. The faces of these actors present a veritible Mount Rushmore of menace.

Treachery plays a heavy part in all Sagebrush Noirs and Mitchum's Jim Garry soon discovers that his 'friend' and partner Tate Riling...is intent on swindling landowners in a scheme to deny grazing land to rancher Lufton and his family. Garry switches his loyalty to Lufton and his daughters and the audience is treated to one of the most vicious fight scenes on screen, a fight staged so realistically by director Wise and actors, Mitchum and Robert Preston, that the two stars came away battered and bruised.

***

THE FURIES (1950: Paramount: Director: Anthony Mann)

Vance Jeffords (Barbara Stanwyck) is her father's daughter. And what a father! T.C. Jeffords is a cross between King Lear and Captain Bligh. Walter Huston, in his last role, manages to make this egomaniacal tyrant both frightening and likeable. He handily blows nominal leading man and Noir veteran Wendell Corey off this screen, but Stanwyck, in one of her last great performances, matches him in flamboyance and audacity.

When he remarries (jilting daughter for Easterner Judith Anderson's fortune) Stanwyck disfigures his new bride with a well thrown scissors! When he hangs her Mexican lover (Gilbert Roland) she embarks on a relentless campaign to ruin him. The film seems to revel in the mutual ruthlessness of father and daughter. It also boasts a vicious turn by Thomas Gomez as 'El Tigre, T.C... Jeffords' chief pistolero who is eager to throw the rope over Gilbert Roland's neck. Gomez was fresh from his greatest role in Abraham Polonsky's 'Force of Evil.'

So in love are father and daughter, that although Stanwyck ultimately gains the upper hand and the ability to crush her father, she can't bring herself to do it. That job is outsourced to Gilbert Roland's vengeful, seemingly insane mother who guns the robber baron down in the street.

***

DEVIL'S DOORWAY (1950: MGM: Director: Anthony Mann)

What does it take to earn your neighbor's trust? Lance Poole, Native American, Property-Owner and War Hero (winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor for service on the Union side in the Civil War) is presented with this riddle from the moment he rides back into the valley he left four years earlier.

Poole, unlike most Indians, has managed to prosper and live in peace prior to the war. He has a fine ranch and can, he believes, continue to exist harmoniously with his white neighbors without betraying his culture or his people.

Yet he isn't prepared for rabble-rousing, Indian hating Carpetbagger Louis Calhern, who spreads his poison like ground fog across the valley--denigrating the Indians and appealing to the valley's citizen's baser nature with talk of gold strikes. With frighteningly little efford he suceeds in polarizing the community, adding the plight of sheep herders in search of grazing lands into the mix.

By mid-film Calhern has resorted to every trick he knows to disenfranchise the peaceful Indians and grab their land, turning the community (with the exception of a lady lawyer engaged in appealing Poole's case) into a lynch mob.

A gun battle between Poole's men and the sheepherders provides the spark precipitating the climatic battle, with white settlers and hired gunmen laying siege to Poole's ranch. Poole and the outnumbered Indians return fire, utilizing military tactics Poole learned in his now seemingly misguided defense of the Union. Despite a valiant struggle, the Indians haven't the numbers and the film is headed for a bloodbath. The belated arrival of the US cavalry provides a temporary truce. The cavalry officers demands Poole's surrender and Poole, to save the lives of the few remaining women and children, complies.

Dressed in his blue uniform and wearing his Congressional Medal of Honor, he marches out to the Union officer and delivers a crisp salute. When the officer asks 'where are all the others?' Poole answers 'We're all gone,' and falls, face forward, into the camera, dead.

Never had a bleaker picture been painted of the 'Winning of the West.' Mann, even hindered by the glamourous star presence of Robert Taylor ( who is surprisingly effective in what was for him a highly unlikely role) managed to create what must be the most uncompromising film in the Post-War 'social problem' sub-genre).*

After 'Doorway' and 'Border Incident' (1950) his ultra-brutal expose of the abuse of Mexican workers, highjacked and exploited in California's 'factories in the fields,' Mann signed a lucrative contract with Universal International, where he proceeded to complete his transition from straight to sagebrush noir, utilizing the darker side of James Stewart's personality with such films as 'Winchester 73,' 'Bend of the River,' 'Naked Spur' (MGM, 1953) and, magisterially, with 'The Man From Laramie (Columbia, 1955).

Mann closed out his expeditions into sagebrush noir with 'Man of the West' (Paramount, 1958) starring the quintessential straight-shooting cowboy, Gary Cooper. In the film, an ill and aging Cooper portrayed reformed badman Link Jones, who is forced to draw again on his terrifying capability for brutality in order to defeat his old 'family,' the Tobin Gang, led by Lee J. Cobb, whose portrayal of patriarch Dock Tobin, a psychotic version of Lear, brings the film within the range of high tragedy.

***

These films by Mann, Wise and Walsh, would be followed by other noted sagebrush films ('Ramrod,' 'Springfield Rifle,' and 'Day of the Outlaw' by Andre de Toth. 'Jubal', '3:10 to Yuma', 'Cowboy' and 'The Hanging Tree' by Delmer Daves. Budd Boetticher's handful of westerns with Randolph Scott, closing out with 'Comanche Station' in 1960, with 1957's '7 Men From Now' being the best of the lot.

Other works might be mentioned. 'Little Big Horn' (1950) by Charles Marquis Warren. Sam Fuller's 'I Shot Jesse James' and 'Forty Guns.' Two low budget Anthony Quinn films, 'The Man From Del Rio' and 'The Ride Back' (this co-starring William Conrad) which, while not directed by Robert Aldrich, were associated with his brief 'Associates and Aldrich' studio and produced during the same period as his masterly Noir 'Kiss Me Deadly.'

***

Few westerns are being made these days. For a while, it was felt that Eastwood's 'The Unforgiven' had driven the last nail in the coffin that was the Western genre. Yet new films have begun to appear and unsurprisingly they lean toward the dark side. The 'new' '3:10 to Yuma' stars Russell Crowe (who lacks the charm and ambiguity Glenn Ford brought to the character of Ben Wade) and Christian 'Batman' Bale, whose signature neuroticism dilutes the interest the more normal Van Heflin brought to the role of Wade's nemesis.

In the wake of America's endless, indistinguishable and unwinnable wars, the new western heroes such as Kevin Costner in 'Open Range' have quickly become cliche psycho-vets. My own cowboy heroes remain:

Fonda's Wyatt Earp ('My Darling Clementine'; John Ford, 1946); Glenn Ford's Ben Wade ('3:10 to Yuma'; Delmer Daves, 1956); Gregory Peck's Jimmy Ringo ('The Gunfighter'; Henry King, 1950); Coop's Will Kane ('High Noon'; Fred Zinnemann, 1952); and John Wayne's twilight gem, J.B. Books in Don Siegel's 'The Shootist' (1976)

*Post World War II “social problem” films included “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” “The Best Years of Our Lives,” “Pinky,” “The Men” and “Intruder in the Dust” among a few others.

© 2008 by Michael Shepler. Michael Shepler is cultural coordinator for PoliticalAffairs.net.

Reflexiones sobre la muerte (imprevista) de una ideología

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:47:00 +0000

11-24-08, 9:43 am

La crisis financiera en Wall Street ha provocado una grave crisis ideológica. El capitalismo mismo está bajo escrutinio. En los medios corporativos, ya se pueden encontrar discusiones del marxismo, del capitalismo y del socialismo; no siempre presentado de una manera positiva, pero a veces la discusión ha sido bien pensada.

Hasta el ex presidente de la Junta del Banco de Reserva Federal, Alan Greenspan, desde hace mucho campeón destacado del fundamentalismo del mercado libre, dijo al Congreso a fines de octubre que estaba en plena 'crisis existencial'. Confesaba Greenspan que había cometido 'un error en presumir que los propios intereses de organismos como los bancos y otros fueron tales que poseían la mejor capacidad para proteger a sus accionistas y sus valores en las corporaciones'.

Otro ejemplo de esta tendencia es el análisis reciente de Reuters por Bernd Debusmann, que escribió que 'está agonizando el capitalismo tal y como nosotros lo conocemos. Y los que pronosticaban que este, el sistema desencadenado que fue promovido por EEUU era un peligro para el mundo ya están siendo vindicados. Entre estos últimos se encuentra a Carlos Marx, cuyo pensamiento sobre los bancos parece curiosamente contemporáneo en estos días'.

.Al otro lado del espectro, considera el despliegue confuso de lógica en este editorial del Washington Post publicado en octubre: '¿Es este el fin del capitalismo norteamericano?' La respuesta es que 'no somos testigos de una crisis del mercado libre mismo pero, más bien una crisis de mercados distorsionados'. En la opinión del Post, el colapse del sistema actual no es crisis capitalista porque no vivimos bajo un 'capitalismo auténtico'. Sin embargo, parece que los editores del Post no eran capaces de elaborar una visión de lo que sería un 'capitalismo verdadero'.

El ex economista principal del Banco Mundial, Joseph E. Stiglitz ofrece unas observaciones más coherentes. En un artículo reciente en la revista Vanity Fair, Stiglitz ofrece las características principales de la ideología del capitalismo de mercado libre así como se practica en EEUU: 'las presiones de parte de intereses especiales, una política populista, una mala política económica, y la pura incompetencia,' características que él ve como las raíces de la crisis actual.

Atacó Stiglitz a la ideología anti-gobierno tras la política económica de la derecha. 'Proclamaba [esta] ideología que siempre son buenos los mercados y el gobierno siempre maloŠ [pero] la realidad es que los problemas claves que enfrentamos como sociedad no pueden ser enfrentados sin gobierno efectivo'. En su crítica al neoliberalismo Stiglitz muestra un aspecto independiente, y va mucho más allá que lo que se atreven la mayor parte de los economistas norteamericanos ortodoxos

Al igual que sus contrapartes entre los ejecutivos empresariales de la nación, la mayor parte de los economistas estadounidenses han abandonado desde hace mucho cualquier pretexto de estar practicando una ciencia objetiva. Muy al contrario, durante las últimas tres décadas han preferido ver a la economía norteamericana con lentes color de rosa. Y, ¿por qué no? Cuando las cosas van mal, nunca tienen que pagar por sus errores académicos. Esto es quizás el factor más distintivo del capitalismo de hoy en día. A una mano, muchas veces se 'roba con impunidad con pluma estilográfica'; a la otra, el servir como propagandista académico por el neoliberalismo no les trae ningún riesgo a los que practiquen hoy la 'ciencia gris.' Entre los que pronostican sobre el futuro de la economía norteamericana, siempre hay más optimistas descabelladas que derrotistas.

Joseph Stiglitz es distinto. Habiendo visto a primera mano los daños causados por la FMI y su política neoliberal, en especial entre las naciones más pobres del mundo, oyó Siglitz la voz de su conciencia y renunció en 1999 su puesto de economista en jefe de la FMI. Desde entonces ha criticado a la dogma neoliberal de libre comercio, ideología que ha servido como hoja de higuera conveniente para esconder la multitud de crímenes perpetrados a escala global por la avaricia corporativa desenfrenada.

Stiglitz subrayó en Vanity Fair el secreto escondido del capitalismo norteamericano: 'Nuestra economía,' escribe él, 'tiene como base inversiones públicas en la tecnología, tales como el Internet'. Los avances de la tecnología moderna, notaba él, han sido la fuerza motivadora tras la economía norteamericana moderna y los seguirán siendo en el futuro. Todos esos acontecimientos revolucionarios, como por ejemplo, la tecnología informática, la energía alternativa, y la tecnología espacial, han resultado de los esfuerzos cooperativos financiados con fondos públicos, con la participación del gobierno norteamericano y de centros universitarios y corporativos de investigación.

Tales avances, en turno, se transforman, por bien o por mal, en fuentes lucrativos de ganancias para las empresas norteamericanas y se exportan por todo el mundo. Sin embargo, surgen todos estos logros tecnológicos de esfuerzos cuidadosamente planeados con el apoyo gubernamental, utilizando los talentos científicos y empresariales de grandes números de individuos trabajando juntos por lograr una meta común. Depende el futuro de la economía norteamericana y las posibilidades de lograr la seguridad económica del pueblo norteamericano precisamente de esta clase de planificación y resolución de problemas.

Ya se ha comprobado decisivamente que los mercados por si solos son muy poco eficientes como reguladores de la vida económica. Como lo expresa Siglitz, 'De la Depresión aprendimos que los mercados no se auto-ajustan,' añadiendo además que las intervenciones gubernamentales esporádicas en la economía como son ajustes en las tazas de intereses resultan insuficientes para evitar las crisis económicas recurrentes. Ahora nos enfrentamos a una gama muy amplia de problemas económicas interconectados, principalmente a la crisis hipotecaria y financiera. Pero las crisis económicas ya son tan sistemáticas y tan difundidas que no se pueden resolver con puros ajustes a las tazas de interesés.

Dado que los mercados no se reajustan por si solos y dado que una economía sana y dinámica exige financiamiento público y reglamento gubernamental a los mercados financieros, resulta evidente que en EEUU hace muchísima falta una forma de terapia económica muy distinta al curanderismo de mercado libre aplicado hasta ahora por la administración Bush.

En su artículo, Siglitz no solo rechaza a la secta integrista del mercado libre, pero también hace criticar a los proponentes más ortodoxos de la intervención gubernamental limitada dirigida por la junta de la Reserva Federal, así como los rescates esporádicos de emergencia como es el paquete de rescate a Wall Street propuesto por Bernake y Paulson. Como nota Stiglitz, el tal llamado 'mercado libre' viene con un enorme precio oculto, que el pueblo norteamericano ya tiene que pagar. Una parte del 'por qué' de estos gastos tan estratosféricos es que han comprado los cabilderos e intereses especiales de Washington acceso a las salas del Congreso y a los organismos regulatorios que fueron destinados originalmente a vigilar las actividades criminales de los que compren votos en el Congreso y ocupen a estos mismos cabilderos. En pocas palabras, han estafado al sistema y, en las palabras de Stiglitz, han 'torcido las reglas para su propio beneficio'.

Este sistema desenfrenado de mercado libre tuvo su agosto durante la época de Reagan y los años de gobierno unipartidario bajo George W. Bush. Bajo Bush, los componentes corporativos de la base verdadera de Bush, que son la Halliburton, Blackwater USA, las grandes transnacionales petroleras, las aseguradoras y empresas farmaceuticas todos han hecho cola para recibir contratos gubernamentales no competitivos, grandes recortes de impuestos, exenciones al reglamento gubernamental y una fiesta de sangre en Irak. Fue durante esta nueva época dorada de corrupción política que Donald Diamond, empresario de bienes raíces de Arizona, compraba la ayuda de John McCain por adquirir una extensa y lucrativa parcela de terrenos públicos en la costa de California, para erigir en ellos McPalacios. En la década del los 1980, otro oriundo de Arizona, Charles Keating, recibió favores especiales del Senado de parte de su amigo 'hasta que la muerte nos separe,' John McCain, junto con cuatro senadores más, tentándolos por medio de contribuciones de campaña extravagantes para que se hicieran de la vista gorda mientras que su institución financiera, la Lincoln Savings and Loan, estaba involucrada en fraudes masivos.

El Pueblo antes de las ganancias: una idea cuyo tiempo ha llegado.

La crisis económica que ya enfrentamos es resultado directo de la anarquía de un sistema financiero guiado exclusivamente por el egoísmo y la avaricia por ganancias.

Pero si ya ha quedado comprobado que el caos financiero actual se debe a la búsqueda egoísta de ganancias corporativas por parte de los norteamericanos más adinerados, ¿qué clase de política necesitamos en lugar de lo que tenemos ahora? Stiglitz hace un llamado por una intervención gubernamental cuidadosamente planificada, mercados financieros fuertemente reglamentados, inversiones infraestructurales masivas, y nuevos programas y reglamentos que permitan a los dueños de casas que se enfrentan a la ejecución hipotecaria repagar sus deudas de una manera razonable, siempre quedándose en sus hogares.

Otro economista respetado, James K. Galbraith, de la Universidad de Texas (hijo de John Kenneth Galbraith, economista progresista renombrado de la época Kennedy-Johnson), acaba de dirigirse a la crisis del capitalismo en un artículo en Harpers Magazine simplemente titulado 'Plan'. En su artículo, Galbraith ve al sistema actual como una 'economía mixta.' Tal y como existe ahora, esta economía mixta está dominada por los intereses corporativos. Con el auge del neoliberalismo, han logrado los intereses corporativos dominar por completo a un componente público de la economía que antes era esencial pero que se ha quedado esencialmente dormido desde la época de FDR (con un breve intento por despertarlo durante los años del programa de la 'Gran Sociedad' de Lyndon B. Johnson).

Parece estar de acuerdo Galbraith con Stiglitz, de que una férrea adherencia a una política de integrismo del mercado libre exige un precio tremendo. En su visión, los que han ejercido el poder durante tantos años en círculos políticos y económicos norteamericanos creen ciegamente en utilizar 'al gobierno para construir monopolios, para controlar recursos, para bloquear la regulación, para aplastar a los sindicatos laborales, [y] para desviar la máxima cantidad de dinero posible de los contribuyentes a las manos privadas'.

Obviamente, la solución a la crisis económica actual no será retrocedernos a alguna forma 'auténtica' u 'original' del capitalismo, como lo sueña el escritor editorial del Washington Post. Tampoco se resuelve con solo regular y vigilar a los mercados financieros y a los bancos. Galbraith enfatizó que la planificación es la mejor solución. Para él, el papel del gobierno debe ser uno de proporcionar una vigilancia permanente sobre la economía norteamericana y sobre los excesos inevitables del capitalismo.

Solamente un gobierno basado en la democracia y que responda a las necesidades del pueblo norteamericano será capaz de proporcionar la planificación y los recursos monetarios necesarios para dirigirse a los problemas que surgen inevitablemente de una economía capitalista. Algunas de las consecuencias negativas del capitalismo, sin regular, que ya estamos viendo son millones de ejecuciones hipotecarias, un creciente desempleo, cierres de fábricas, caos en el mercado y la existencia siempre más reducida de recursos naturales como petróleo y agua. Los planificadores gubernamentales, buscando el bienestar del público norteamericano y no las ganancias, deben estar trabajando para proporcionar soluciones actualizadas a los problemas económicos nacionales. Galbraith subraya la crisis ambiental que enfrentamos y apunta al impacto directo que tienen el calentamiento global y la dependencia del petróleo extranjero sobre nuestra economía en crisis.

La planificación sistemática puede ser dirigida a los múltiples problemas que enfrentamos como nación: problemas sociales como son la falta de trabajos bien pagados y de un futuro económico seguro, problemas ambientales como el calentamiento global, y una infraestructura que se está derrumbando, el pésimo estado de nuestro sistema de cuidado de salud, y los problemas de discriminación racial, étnica y sexual. Se ha empeorado todo y cada uno de estos problemas durante los últimos ocho años de la administración Bush, que ha mostrado una falta total de planificación estratégica (Irak / Katrina / la crisis hipotecaria) y un desprecio altanero por la idea de contemplar las necesidades de cualquier sector de la sociedad norteamericana salvo a los súper-ricos. Y para los que no suscriben al dogma oficial del capitalismo del mercado libre desenfrenado, se les ha bloqueado cualquier participación en la formulación de política económica.

Galbraith ha subrayado también nuestra necesidad de un gobierno en el cuál se escuchan las voces de los trabajadores y en donde se implementan programas que ofrezcan modos viables para resucitar la economía norteamericana. Semejantes iniciativas nuevas pueden ser utilizadas para poner fin a nuestra larga dependencia a los combustibles fósiles no renovables y facilitar inversiones masivas en alternativas energéticas renovables. El resultado directo de este proceso de planificación será el fortalecimiento de industrias ecológicas y la creación de trabajos nuevos. Hace falta la previsión intelectual y la planificación necesaria como para crear un sistema universal de cuidado de salud que asegure un acceso igual y completo al cuidado médico a todos los norteamericanos.

El dinero que hace falta para resucitar a nuestra economía debe provenir de la cancelación de los recortes de impuestos al dos por ciento más rico de los contribuyentes, mientras tanto, proporcionándonos recortes de impuestos y paquetes de estímulo a nosotros los demás. Hay que liberar más dólares federales para las necesidades domésticas poniendo fin a la guerra en Irak, que ha llegado a ser un establo Augeano de sobornos y corrupción que nos cuesta $10 mil millones al mes.

Preservar el medio ambiente, evitar las guerras, encontrar medios para reducir el hinchado presupuesto militar y crear trabajos, estos son los retos intelectuales y morales del siglo XXI que exigen más de lo que ofrecen los llamados expertos. Los quehaceres del momento exigen también la participación popular y directa de millones de norteamericanos 'ordinarios' que entienden en carne propia los problemas que enfrentamos.

Se puede construir una economía nueva únicamente si es basado en el trabajo duro, la democracia y la planificación cuidadosa. Jamás puede surgir esto del deseo egoísta por la adquisición de tremendas riquezas personales: el motor central del capitalismo de mercado libre. Pero la planificación por el futuro económico de nuestro país no debe ser dominio exclusivo de burócratas gubernamentales ni de profesores universitarios, una versión del siglo XXI de los reyes filósofos de Platón.

Una planificación efectiva exige liderazgo y participación activa de los trabajadores norteamericanos. El liderazgo por una nueva economía debe surgir en especial del movimiento sindical, cuyos dirigentes e integrantes tienen experiencia directa con los problemas que enfrentan los trabajadores. Estos dirigentes de clase trabajadora ya están listos, dispuestos y capaces de trabajar con gobierno y negocios para encontrar soluciones para proteger los intereses económicos del corazón de la democracia, el pueblo norteamericano.

Para enfrentar y derrotar a este monstruo económico de múltiples cabezas, se necesita una iniciativa atrevida y distinta de múltiples aspectos. Alcanzar la victoria en esta lucha Hercúlea exige un esfuerzo concertado nacional y una planificación económica cautelosa. Lo esencial para su éxito es adoptar una estrategia popular, trabajando de abajo para arriba, un esfuerzo masivo parecido a la movilización engendrada por la campaña electoral de Obama, dependiendo de la participación del pueblo norteamericano para decirnos cuáles deben ser nuestras prioridades nacionales. Queda evidente que un esfuerzo así exigirá una inyección masiva de dólares federales, utilizados de manera racional y con una planificación cuidadosa.

Jamás ha habido un momento más propicio ni más urgente que ahora para hacer una reevaluación de este sistema económico en que vivimos. Con Barack Obama en la Casa Blanca y los Demócratas firmemente en control del Congreso, ha llegado la hora de llevar acabo esos cambios básicos en la economía, que pondrán fin al régimen del capitalismo sin regular de mercado libre que hemos sufrido durante los últimos ocho años de caos, y, ya en buena hora, poner los intereses del pueblo norteamericano por encima de las ganancias corporativas.

My European Vacation: Interviews with Working-class Leaders

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:43:00 +0000

11-24-08, 9:40 am

Editor's note: George Marinos heads the labor movement work of the Greek Communist Party. Marinos is also a member of Parliament representing the Communist Party of Greece. George Perros is a member of the Executive Secreteriat of the Greek All-workers Militant Front (PAME). George Mavrikos is the general secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions. These interviews were conducted in Athens in August 2008.

Interview With George Marinos, Greek Communist Party

PA: Please tell us a little about the history of the Party.

GM: The Greek Communist Party is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. The Communist Party Youth is celebrating its 40th year. We have been through a long history of struggle for growth and survival. Time doesn't permit a long explanation. Our comrades have faced imprisonment, death and illegal status. Also, there have been defections. Full legal status as a communist was not won until 1974. It wasn't until 1962 that known communists could hold a job. But, through it all, we are here.

In our last Greek election, our party got 8 percent of the vote which gave us 22 seats in the parliament. We hold three seats in the European Parliament.

PA: To what do you attribute your advances?

GM: Our party is a Marxist-Leninist party. We are always putting forward the struggles and issues facing the working classes. We always seek a united working class through the struggles of the trade unions. That is why we support a strong and expanding World Federation of Trade Unionists. Unity in our party is always our goal. Our enemies often ask how we survive and grow? We tell them the same. They may not like our political line and our successes, but we have their full respect.

PA: Where has your growth come from?

GM: Recently even social democratic forces are joining our party. Of course, workers through their trade union experience, especially the left federation, the All-workers Militant Front (PAME), are seeing the need for Communist Party.

Interview with Geroge Perros of the All-workers Militant Front (PAME)

PA: What are the main initiatives of PAME in the current period?

GP: Our labor federation is very actively involved in coordinating trade union activities in Greece. Our method of work is actions and struggles. Right now our focus is with young workers and immigrant workers. We are actively oppositng our government's anti-worker programs which cut back on workers rights and attempt to follow the anti worker dictates of the European Union.

We are, everyday, protecting the social security rights of all Greek workers. We fight for a stable working situation; against the privatization being driven by the European Union and forces present here in Greece. Protecting and improving the health, education and lives or workers is our priority.

PA: Is there another labor federation in Greece?

GP Yes. You might want to visualize two sides of trade union struggles. On the one side is PAME which struggles all the time for workers rights against employers dictates. On the other side is a labor federation which subjugates itself to the dictates of the Greek government.

PA: What is the size of PAME?

George Perros: PAME has approximately 600,000 members. We have been bringing more workers into PAME over the past months.

PA: You indicated a strong interest in international solidarity. Can you describe this?

GP: Yes, international solidarity is a major focus of our work. We are directly affiliated with the World Federation of Trade Unions and agrees with its militant actions and solidarity initiatives. For example, this Saturday, we will be having a special all day meeting with South African Trade unions. In this meeting we will be focusing on the issue of immigration; specifically the immigration of African workers to Europe and Greece.

Also, PAME is hosting displaced Palestinian children due to the very difficult situation in their country. Also, on September 25th a delegation from PAME and Greek workers will be going to Syria/Lebonen; about 130 will be in that delegation.

PA: What are your areas of trade union priorities?

GP: We are focusing on transportation and the dangerous privatization taking place in the airlines and railroads. Unions in the United States interested in solidarity work around those industrial concentrations are invited to email us and join the struggle. Our email is: pame@hot.gr; and our website is: www.pamehellas.gr.

Interview with George Mavrikos of WFTU

PA: Describe some of the recent changes at WFTU?

George Mavrikos: At the WFTU Congress in Havana, Cuba in December 2005, the decision was made to move the WFTU headquarters from Prague, Czech Republic to Athens, Greece. This took place the following month, January 2006. Most of the records are now in place in Athens.

PA: What are the main prioities of the WFTU?

GM: We have three main priorities: First at the our actions. We are holding seminars in all the continents with strong solidarity. We just held a Conference on Working Women in Brussels where 105 women from 65 countries attended. We held a conference on immigration in the 21st century and last year, in Ecuador 145 trade unionists met to discuss the new situation in the Western Hemisphere. As you know the changes have been dramatic.

The second priority is strengthening our organization. We are strengthening our regional organizations/branches/regions; and, the TUIs, Trade Union Internationals groupings which are active include: Construction with a conference in Greece; Energy with a recent conference in Mexico; Transport with a conference in Brazil; and metalworkers in Spain. TUIs on public services, education/teachers and agriculture are in the works.

Our 3rd priority is to fully participate in international organizations. For example at the International Labor Organization. At the recent meeting of the ILO we fully participating in helping to gain the leadership of the Chinese trade unions into the ILO governing body. It is said that we were instrumental in that effort. We met with The Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Italy; and our representative in UNESCO has made our presence their well known. We are also fully represented at the United Nations in New York by our permanent representative Dr. Frank Goldsmith. We are looking more in these arenas.

PA: Have there been any difficulties?

GM: Yes, our affiliates tend to be the most active but also not in strong financial condition. This is why our own financial situation is not as strong as is needed. We take no other money to do our work than from our own affiliates. There is another international trade union group that is trying to convince unions affiliated with us to drop their affiliation. They offer a lot of money, But, they have not been successful.

PA: Are there new initiatives?

GM: Yes, this year we are planning a major meeting in Nigeria for all of our African affiliates. Also, September 19 and 20, there will be a meeting in Nepal for Asian affiliates in December 15 and 16 in Lisbon on the affects of Globalization on European workers.

In 2009 we will be having a meeting in Peru on Working Youth and Globalization. Comrade Valentin Pacho, sitting right here, will be headed up that important meeting.

And, in 2009, the WFTU will holding its next Executive Council meeting in Cyprus. This will be a good time reassess our positions.