NAME: Ira Grupper
EMAIL: irag@iglou.com
DATE: 01/16/2007
TITLE: Looking to the New Year: The Good,
the Bad, and the Ugly
LABOR PAEANS—December 2006 - January 2007
by Ira Grupper
(published by FORsooth, newspaper of Louisville, Kentucky chapter of F.O.R. [Fellowship of Reconciliation] )
Looking to the New Year: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
We just celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. I have several things for which I need to be thankful. The first is the privilege of having gotten to meet Pvt. Kyle Snyder, a solder in the U.S. Army who went to Canada rather than continue as, effectively, a mercenary for Bush, Halliburton and company in Iraq.
He tried to turn himself in at Fort Knox, a few weeks ago, but the army reneged on the agreement it had worked out with Kyle’s lawyer, and Kyle is still a “deserter” from the killing machine. Kyle “spent Thanksgiving week gutting houses flooded by Hurricane Katrina more than a year ago.” (Louisville Courier-Journal 11.25.06). Now isn’t that a better use of his time and skills? It was my honor to house Kyle one of the days he was in Louisville.
Your columnist’s second reason to be thankful is the drubbing the Republicans got at the polls by an electorate fed up with war, corruption, and economic oppression. This election has given the labor movement, and poor and working class people, some concrete material gains. We now have the opportunity to better access the political system to push for reforms—health insurance, including Medicare drug prescription programs; higher minimum wage; improved bankruptcy laws preventing companies from abandoning contractual pension and retiree healthcare coverage. As noted by Bill Samuel, legislative director of the AFL-CIO: “We have an opportunity to push our agenda for working families.”
But is the agenda for working families the same as the Democratic Party’s? As noted in a New York Times story November 24: “Alarmed at the prospect of Democratic control of Congress, top executives from two dozen drug companies met here last week to assess what appears to them to be a harsh new political climate, and to draft a battle plan.
“Hoping to prevent Congress from letting the government negotiate lower drug prices for millions of older Americans on Medicare, the pharmaceutical companies have been recruiting Democratic lobbyists, lining up allies in the Bush administration and Congress, and renewing ties with organizations of patients who depend on brand-name drugs.” How will the rest of the Democratic Party react? The election has given impetus to moves to hold accountable those whose policies have made the U.S. feared and loathed by so many populations all over the globe.
Yet, we must view all of this carefully. While an improved minimum wage is welcome, the $7 per hour proposed minimum by the Democratic Party is hardly a living wage. So, this ruling class concession, if won, is welcome, but hardly adequate. Nor have the Democrats opposed as a whole the U.S. troop withdrawal in Iraq. If Sen. Lieberman is welcomed back under the Democratic Party sheets, we all will get screwed.
Nor must we forget that the Republican far-right (is this an oxymoron?) still rules the executive roost. Which brings us to Nicaragua. Daniél Ortega, long-time Sandinista leader, recently won the presidential election. The Nicaraguan right-wing was split, despite U.S. efforts to unite them, and Ortega emerged victorious.
There are those who accuse Ortega of corruption, cult of personality, and more. Even if some of this is true, he is a servant of the poor and dispossessed, and that is why the Nicaraguenses returned him to office.
But the U.S. is not sitting still. Robert Gates is being considered by Congress to replace disgraced Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. Gates is an old Cold Warrior involved in most of the illegal and immoral U.S. government actions in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. As director of the Central Intelligence Agency, in the 1980’s, he signed off on the mining of the Nicaraguan port of Corinto, and execution of the Contra war against Nicaragua, ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice at The Hague.
Gates further distinguished himself by lying to the U.S. Senate about knowledge of the illegal activities known as the Iran-Contra scandal, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act and the Boland Amendment. Julia Barnes writes in the Los Angeles Times (November 25) “(Gates) advocated a bombing campaign against Nicaragua in 1984 in order to ‘bring down’ (the government).”
The Democrats’ majority in the U.S. House of Representatives will have a positive effect locally. Rep. Anne Nothup, Louisville’s four-time Congressperson, hawk-extraordinaire and lapdog of Sen. Mitch McConnell, was defeated by liberal publisher and millionaire John Yarmuth.
I was on John’s television show, years ago, talking about the Israeli-Palestinian situation. When he was publisher of LEO, Louisville’s alternative newspaper, he had his media columnist write a full-page piece on the local National Public Radio (NPR) station’s withdrawal of an invitation for me to speak on a popular talk-show, due to my support for justice for the Palestinians. I found him to possess something sorely lacking in the Congressional hall he will soon enter: integrity.
A former Republican, Yarmuth supports affirmative action, universal health insurance, raising the minimum wage, and a woman’s right to choose. He won despite the local, state and national Democratic Party’s lack of financial and other support, until the last minute.
But there are serious concerns. His stated position on immigration did not differ from the far-right and objectively racist view of his opponent.
Northup charged that, despite Yarmuth saying he favors raising the minimum wage, a restaurant chain the Yarmuth family owns has franchisees that pay the bare minimum.
Yarmuth countered that the parent company has no say in what franchisees pay. Well, John, take a look at Yum! Brands, Louisville-based owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and more. Florida tomato pickers, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Jobs With Justice, and others, kept pressing Yum! to lean on tomato suppliers to raise the per-barrel rate.
Yum said it had no say in the matter—the tomato growers were the ones to pressure. The workers, and their allies, kept pressing Taco Bell, and, lo and behold, the workers got the raise. Why is this situation any different than yours, John? You know you can get the franchisees to raise the wage.
I am thrilled that Yarmuth is the Congressman-elect. But we still have lots of work ahead of us. The working class still votes many times against its own interests. For every 51 votes Yarmuth got, Northup got 48, which included many many non-filthy rich folk.
Space prevents comment on job cuts and buyouts at Ford Motor Company, Daimler-Chrysler possibly gutting or selling off its Chrysler division, the Kroger Distribution Center in Louisville possibly being sold and its effect on 800 Teamsters, Smithfield Packing Company targeting undocumented workers as a way to thwart unionization, the Houston janitors’ situation; and the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper strike.
Altho your humble scribe would like to close the year on a happy note, this cannot be done in good conscience. Listen to the Israeli group, Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), in two separate November press releases:“As Jews all over the world read this week that even God must not kill innocent people, the State of Israel continues to play God by deciding when they can rain down fire and brimstone on civilians in the name of self defense. RHR condemns the firing of Kassam rockets on Israeli cities, but the firing of rockets does not justify Israeli shelling of densely populated areas in Gaza that has caused the death of over 68 children in the last four months alone, certainly when this shelling has not stopped the Kassams from falling.”Don’t say you didn’t know. Saalam. Shalom. Peace. Contact Ira Grupper: irag@iglou.com
The second press release lists the names and ages of those killed in the Gaza shellings (the first name, with no age listed, is probably a Jew, and the rest Palestinians—I.G.):
“Don't Say You Didn't Know: Amos Gvirtz, Na'ama Akhmad Atmana 57; Masud Abdallah Atmana 55; Fadma Masud Atmana 16; Samir Masud Atmana 5; Manal Muhammad Atmana 35; Misa Ramzi Atmana 5; Mahadi Sa'ad Abdallah Atmana 16; Muhammad Saad Abdallah Atmana 16; Arafat Sa'ad Abdallah Atmana 20; Snaa Akhmad Atmana 70; Sacakh Abdallah Atmana 45; Sa'ad Majdi Atmana 5; Muhammad Amjad Atmana 12; Muhammad Ramadan Atmana 28; Nihad Muhammad Atmana 31; Saker Muhammad Udwan 45. Beit Hanun (Gaza Strip), Nov. 11, 2006.”
July-August, 2006 Newsletter
http://www.cc-ds.org/newsletters/LaborPaeans_July-August2006.pdf
September, 2006 Newsletter
http://www.cc-ds.org/newsletters/LaborPaeans_September2006.pdf