Reprinted from the People's Weekly World
CHICAGO — The Communist Party USA has established a new Religion Commission to strengthen its work among religious people and organizations. In its leadership are activists representing various religious traditions from around the country. Tim Yeager, a Chicago trade unionist and a member of the Episcopal Church, serves as its chair.
“We want to reach out to religious people and communities, to find ways of improving our coalition work with them, and to welcome people of faith into the party,” Yeager said. “We invite questions and responses from people who would like to dialogue with us on matters pertaining to religion, Marxism and the struggle for more peaceful, just and secure world.”
There is a common misconception concerning the position of the Communist Party USA about religion, Yeager noted. Many who are unfamiliar with the party wrongly assume that all Communists are atheists, or that the party requires its members to be atheists. Nothing could be farther from the truth, he said. Religious people are welcome to join. The party’s Constitution specifically states that membership is open to “[a]ny person living in the United States, 18 years of age or over, regardless of race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, or religious belief…”
Yeager acknowledged that relations between some Marxist parties and religious institutions in other parts of the world have been marked by conflict. In tsarist Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church had been an arm of the state, and its leadership was opposed to the Revolution. The Bolsheviks adopted an official atheist position, and for many years waged a struggle against organized religion. Elsewhere, such as in Latin America, Marxist parties and religious progressives have worked together against repressive regimes and imperialist intervention.
“There has been no state church in the United States since shortly after we gained our independence, and we have a tradition of religious diversity,” Yeager said. “The so-called Christian Right in recent years has certainly made progress, but some of the greatest leaders in our history have been men and women of faith, and our party has been proud to work with them. The best known example, of course, would be the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
The Religion Commission will be producing articles on matters pertaining to religion and social progress, he said. Its goal is to share with the broader people’s movement the party’s thinking on the religious aspects of current struggles, taking up theoretical questions, and discussing the relationships, contradictions and commonalities among science, Marxism and religion. The commission also announced plans to hold a series of gatherings around the country, open to the public, to discuss how people from religious traditions and the party can better work together, building toward a national conference in 2010.
“As Marx said, the goal is not merely to explain the world, but to change it. We hope that the new Religion Commission will help build greater unity toward that end,” Yeager said. “We welcome people from faith communities to join us.”
For more information, contact Tim Yeager at rtyeager @ gmail.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
New religion commission begins work
Monday, June 15, 2009
Israelis and Obama
Feeling the Hate In Jerusalem on Eve of Obama's Cairo Address
Israelis to Obama: "Save Us From Ourselves!"
Tiananmen Square Is None of Your Business, Congress
From: Hands Off China
Statement by Congressman Ron Paul before the US House of Representatives, June 3, 2009
I rise to oppose this unnecessary and counter-productive resolution regarding the 20th anniversary of the incident in China’s Tiananmen Square. In addition to my concerns over the content of this legislation, I strongly object to the manner in which it was brought to the floor for a vote. While the resolution was being debated on the House floor, I instructed my staff to obtain a copy so that I could read it before the vote. My staff was told by no less than four relevant bodies within the House of Representatives that the text was not available for review and would not be available for another 24 hours. It is unacceptable for Members of the House of Representatives to be asked to vote on legislation that is not available for them to read!
As to the substance of the resolution, I find it disturbing that the House is going out of its way to meddle in China’s domestic politics, which is none of our business, while ignoring the many pressing issues in our own country that definitely are our business.
This resolution “calls on the People’s Republic of China to invite full and independent investigations into the Tiananmen Square crackdown, assisted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the International Committee of the Red Cross…” Where do we get the authority for such a demand? I wonder how the US government would respond if China demanded that the United Nations conduct a full and independent investigation into the treatment of detainees at the US-operated Guantanamo facility?
The resolution “calls on the legal authorities of People’s Republic of China to review immediately the cases of those still imprisoned for participating in the 1989 protests for compliance with internationally recognized standards of fairness and due process in judicial proceedings.” In light of US government’s extraordinary renditions of possibly hundreds of individuals into numerous secret prisons abroad where they are held indefinitely without charge or trial, one wonders what the rest of the world makes of such US demands. It is hard to exercise credible moral authority in the world when our motto toward foreign governments seems to be “do as we say, not as we do.”
While we certainly do not condone government suppression of individual rights and liberties wherever they may occur, why are we not investigating these abuses closer to home and within our jurisdiction? It seems the House is not interested in investigating allegations that US government officials and employees approved and practiced torture against detainees. Where is the Congressional investigation of the US-operated “secret prisons” overseas? What about the administration’s assertion of the right to detain individuals indefinitely without trial? It may be easier to point out the abuses and shortcomings of governments overseas than to address government abuses here at home, but we have the constitutional obligation to exercise our oversight authority in such matters. I strongly believe that addressing these current issues would be a better use of our time than once again condemning China for an event that took place some 20 years ago.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Union flag flies from Mt. Everest
Reposted from http://www.bwint.org
Bro. Dorje Khatri, Union of Trekking, Travel & Rafting Workers –UNITRAV (Nepal), successfully conquered Mt. Everest fourth time and hoisted BWI flag on top of the world. BWI have hearty congratulated Com. Dorje Khatri for his successful expedition.
One more page of History has been made at 5:30 AM of May 26, 2009, BWI flag has been hoisted in top of the world- the Mt. Everest. It is first time that International Trade Union's flag has been hoisted in the highest peak of the world.
After successfully succeeding Mt. Everest, news had been informed to BWI Nepal Affiliates Committee office through satellite phone from the peak. "I make my victory on Mt. Everest and BWI flag is waving" Bro. Dorje Khatri informed.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The fall of GM — new thinking needed
DETROIT — It was a little more than 30 years ago that General Motors had 395,000 United Auto Workers hourly employees. Two years from now, GM will have 38,000 union workers, a decline of over 90 percent.
How did this giant corporation, which once commanded 54 percent of the U.S. market (now under 20 percent), come to be in this situation?
* The company focused on building big gas-guzzling SUVs. While they were a source of big profits, they fell out of favor when gas prices went up.
* For several decades, GM and its fellow domestic auto companies have fought government regulations and fuel efficiency standards — even when those same kinds of regulations made them profitable in Europe and elsewhere.
* An emphasis on employer-based health care and pension plans, instead of fighting for universal plans that covered everyone, eventually caused the Big Three auto companies to be responsible for the benefits of hundreds of thousands of retirees and their dependents. The non-union “transplants” — foreign automakers like Toyota and Honda who have opened plants in the U.S. — with a much younger workforce and shorter history of operation do not have these costs.
* What once happened within the borders of the U.S., with GM either absorbing or out-competing and forcing the closure of other domestic auto manufacturers to become the country’s largest manufacturer, is now played out on a world scale. Worldwide there are multiple producers of autos for the U.S. and world market, and there has been a growth of non-union auto production in the South.
* Of course, the economic crisis has been the final nail in the coffin. But this is a worldwide contraction affecting auto producers throughout the world.
A deadly ripple effect
In announcing its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, GM said it would be closing 14 plants. Some 21,000 hourly workers will be losing their jobs. An estimated 2,100 dealerships will be closing. Seven of those shuttered plants will be here in Michigan.
Chrysler is closing eight plants —three in Detroit, and almost 900 dealerships.
The combined loss of dealerships will be approximately 3,000. With an average of 50 employees per dealership, total job loss from the dealer closings will be in the neighborhood of 150,000.
Parts suppliers will be closing and shedding employees, and white collar workers at GM and Chrysler are seeing huge job losses.
It has been said that every job at an auto assembly plant supports tens of others. That explains why Midwest states see their entire economy taking a hit.
For example, a steelworker from Pittsburgh said recently that 125,000 steel jobs have been lost in the recent period due to the crisis in auto, which is why steelworkers have been organizing rallies to protest the shutdown of auto plants. “When you don’t make cars, you don’t make steel” a steelworker told me at a recent rally.
Michigan — with seven times the auto jobs of the next highest state, Ohio — currently has a 12.9 percent unemployment rate.
Plant closures are taking place in cities like Pontiac, Flint, Ypsilanti and Grand Rapids in addition to Detroit.
The plants are often the largest or second largest taxpayer in town. For example in Pontiac, GM is the largest taxpayer and the city will lose one-fifth of its revenue for its general fund. A poor city already struggling with its finances will now see the ripple effect with more cutbacks in city services, public schools, fire, police and more.
Plunging pay, health care at risk
A question being asked is who is going to have the money to buy the new, green cars of the future? The 2007 contracts between the UAW and GM, Chrysler and Ford ushered in a two-tier wage system where new hires would be paid about one-half of the regular wage — $14 an hour instead of $28.
The bankruptcy of GM and Chrysler further deteriorated the bargaining power of autoworkers, and the new union concessions include: a no-strike pledge until 2015, work rule changes such as shorter break times and elimination of job classifications, and changes to how the union-administered Voluntary Employee Benefits Association (VEBA) that handles health care for retirees will be funded.
The VEBA was created in the 2007 contract and was to be mostly funded with cash from the company, $20 billion in the case of GM. Now it will mainly be funded with stock from the new, post-bankruptcy, reconstituted GM. The fund will have a 17.5 percent interest in GM. At Chrysler the fund will be similarly financed but will have a more than 50 percent stake in the new company.
At GM and Chrysler the UAW will appoint half of the VEBA board but an independent fiduciary, not the union, will run the fund for the benefit of the retirees. This is not union control of a company.
Back in 2007, many said the VEBA would be under-funded, considering how quickly health care costs skyrocket. Last week a commentator predicted, “Now it will fail in six years instead of 15.” Whatever the scenario, it is evident that the fight for national health care is today more critical than ever.
In exchange for its concessions the UAW was given assurances that GM will not propose terminating its pension plans. And the union was given assurances that a sub-compact originally scheduled for production in China would be made here at home.
The president’s auto task force also insisted that the new Fiat-Chrysler alliance build a new small car in a U.S. factory if they intend to sell the car in the United States.
Big political risk
Bankruptcy is a big political risk and gamble for the president and one which Republicans are waiting to pounce on.
However if Sen. McCain had won the election, there would have been no government loans, and a chapter 7 bankruptcy — a complete liquidation of GM and Chrysler — would likely have taken place. The companies would have been ripped apart, sold piecemeal, with even more job losses. Health care and pension assurances would have been non-existent.
And while you do hear acknowledgement here that the president has intervened to keep this industry going, those losing their jobs are not going to enjoy the benefits and if in the end bankruptcy does not result in a viable company, there is danger that anger will be directed at the president. Some already is.
There is also anger that money is going to GM but plants are closing here while production increases are planned for GM plants in Mexico, Korea, China and elsewhere. The UAW did press for GM to agree to build a sub-compact in the U.S. and received a commitment that may keep one plant running.
The Obama administration, wrongly I believe, is taking the view that it will not get involved in the day-to-day management and so far has not demanded that the taxpayer money received by GM be used for keeping production here (an exception being the sub-compact).
Yes, it is good the administration’s auto task force is meeting with communities that are facing job losses to assess their needs, but more — much more — needs to be done.
New thinking needed
A fundamental problem is that plants are being closed without a well-thought-out alternative plan to retool for other production, whether that is mass transit, high-speed rail cars, green products such as wind turbines and solar panels, or any number of products needed to rebuild our infrastructure.
It is an old way of thinking that has a plan for saving the corporation but not the workers and not the needs of the country as a whole, a country that needs a manufacturing base.
While the government now has a majority stake in GM, this is not socialism as the right maintains.
The “Save Jobs, Reinvest in America” rallies that have been taking place across the Midwest are being organized by the Steelworkers union. The UAW, for whatever reason, has not endorsed them. Many feel that a strong push by the UAW, that unites all of labor and the community, is needed to rally the forces necessary to keep manufacturing in Michigan and in the U.S.
Two reactions to the crisis that are gaining ground will not fundamentally alter the outcome and may prolong it. One is “Buy American” and the other is a focus on erecting trade barriers.
Both approaches take the heat off the companies for exporting jobs and lowering working standards throughout the world. GM has operations in some 30 countries as it seeks to pay the lowest wages possible, avoid union representation and pit workers in one country against those in another.
The popular Ford Fusion is made in Mexico and is just one example of American nameplates that are not “made in America.”
It is right to demand that most taxpayer money given to the companies should be used for production here, and we do need to rid ourselves of trade pacts like NAFTA that have made it easier for capital to exit the country. But it is important to remember that the loyalty of the auto companies is to profits, not to the workers.
The impact of the auto crisis in the main urban areas of Michigan and the Midwest falls heavily on African American, Latino and all racially oppressed.
The unemployment rate in these areas is 30 percent and higher. mmediate help is needed.
While Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke worries about the future effect of an increasing deficit, the real worry is who is going to feed, clothe, house, educate, train and give medical care to the millions who have no future?
And this danger far outweighs Bernanke’s concerns. We are most likely facing a prolonged downturn. In the past, manufacturing helped the country come out of a recession (every job in auto driving 10 others shows why). It will not be able to have that same effect for this downturn.
As good as President Obama’s first stimulus was, we need a second stimulus to insure that those in our urban core, and other communities devastated by this crisis, have a future at all.
jrummel @ pww.org
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Biden refuses to cross fire fighters picket line
What’s the difference between a president who supports working families and their unions and one beholden to corporate and anti-worker interests? As President Obama has shown, there’s a lot, but last Friday the Obama administration did something the Bush administration would never have imagined doing.
The White House announced that Vice President Joe Biden and a delegation of top administration officials—including Labor Secretary Hilda Solis—will not cross a Fire Fighters (IAFF) picket line to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting scheduled to begin Friday in Providence, R.I.
Providence Mayor David Cicilline has waged a nearly seven-year campaign against the men and women of IAFF Local 799, refusing to bargain a fair contract, forcing the union into arbitration over each contract, and even going so far as to introduce anti-union ordinances and calling for similar state legislation.
Local 799—along with the Rhode Island AFL-CIO and several other unions—plans to picket the mayors’ conference when its gets underway to highlight Cicilline’s anti-worker actions and lack of a fair contract.
Says IAFF President Harold Schaitberger:
The administration deserves credit for its full support of our members in this fight. And by refusing to attend this high-profile conference, they have sent a strong message to the entire country—that unions and workers rights matter, too.
Providence Fire Fighters have fought a long battle with city officials who forced contract talks into arbitration for several years before Cicilline took office. He was propelled into office in 2002 with strong support from Local 799 after he promised to end years of stalemate and negotiate a fair contract. But the last contract expired in 2005, and the local has been forced back into binding arbitration each year.
Says Local 799 President Paul Doughty:
We tried to settle our differences with the mayor, but he continues to antagonize the hard-working firefighters of Local 799, so we will use this opportunity to shed light on the mayor’s epic mismanagement and his disdain for workers.
Along with the lack of a fair contract, Fire Fighters say Cicilline has sought to cut jobs, implemented “adverse and demeaning internal policies and conditions” and spent more than $1 million of taxpayer money on legal fees to fight the union.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters:
Because of the circumstances surrounding the conference, administration officials will not be participating in this year’s meeting….We have always respected picket lines, and administration officials will not cross this one.
The Obama administration’s action, says AFL-CIO President John Sweeney,
is an important statement in support of the firefighters, police and teachers who go to work every day in order to help others. In supporting them, and respecting the picket line, the Obama administration supports all working families in Providence
Specter tells labor: You're gonna like my EFCA vote
Congressional backers of the Employee Free Choice Act are closer than ever to the 60 Senators they need to break a planned Republican filibuster after Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) told a crowd of trade unionists in Pittsburgh June 6, “I believe you’ll be satisfied with my vote on this issue.”
Specter made his statement to activists demonstrating outside a meeting of the Pennsylvania Democratic Committee that he attended.
U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, Specter’s potential challenger in his Senate re-election contest next year, also addressed the demonstrators, pledging to support the Employee Free Choice Act.
Meanwhile, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is denying reports that she had said she was opposed to the bill. Feinstein is one of a handful of Democratic senators who were quoted as saying they could not support the bill in its original form.
“She will not vote for the bill,” Jeri Shaffery, vice president of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce, told the press last week.
Reached by phone, Gil Duran, an aide to Feinstein, said, “This guy does not speak for the senator. This must be his first rodeo because the story has not changed. It has remained the same. She is looking for a compromise. And anyone who says otherwise is engaging in wishful thinking.”
The World has reported that senators are discussing at least five possible compromises on one of the bill’s key provisions, majority sign-up. The discussions were confirmed last week by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the leader of the effort to win Senate passage.
The Press Associates Union News Service told the World today that it has received confirmation from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) that a mail-in ballot is one option being considered.
If the ballot provision becomes part of the bill, workers would vote by mail to authorize a union as their representative. The cards would be mailed to the National Labor Relations Board. If the union receives a majority of the votes it would be automatically recognized.
The majority sign-up clause of the original bill says that the union must get signed cards from an absolute majority of workers at a shop. The union could then demand and get automatic recognition or it could choose to go through the NLRB elections process.
Sen. Brown has confirmed that still another compromise is on the table. This one would shorten the length of time between the submission of authorization cards and an election for representation. The argument goes that shorter campaigns would give companies less time to engage in illegal intimidation, harassment, spying, threats and firings that they now use to fight union organizing.
In addition to Specter and Feinstein, the discussions are designed to win over the two Democratic senators from Arkansas.
While some labor leaders say they could accept mail-in ballots for majority sign-up, two union presidents – Communications Workers President Larry Cohen and Steelworkers President Leo Gerard – told the World at the America’s Future Now conference in Washington last week that they are still pushing for the original provision.
Cohen noted, “The problem with courting the wavering senators is that they want to water down the bill before deciding how to vote on the filibuster. We also have to contend with the Chamber of Commerce putting a lot of pressure on them.”
Harkin said that if all the compromises fall through he has the assurances of Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), the majority leader, that the bill would come to the floor in its original form for a straight up or down vote that will allow voters to see where everyone really stands.
Cohen received a standing ovation at the America’s Future Now conference when he declared, “We need to say to every Democratic senator: ‘Which side are you on?’”
jwojcik @ pww.org
