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"It's a two class country and the wrong class is running it!" -From a Soldier of Solidarity
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MAY DAY 2012
OCCUPY WALL STREET STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH CALLS FOR:
ON MAY DAY -- WHEREVER YOU ARE -- WHOEVER YOU ARE
NO WORK! NO CHORES! NO BANKING! NO SHOPPING! NO SCHOOL!
A DAY WITHOUT THE 99 PERCENT -- A GENERAL STRIKE AND MORE!!
TAKE THE STREETS!
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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Please distribute widely via Facebook, Twitter, etc. Let us know about April 10th "Justice 4 Trayvon Martin" actions in your city.
Email us with details so that your action can be listed:
info@occupy4jobs.org
A Florida grand jury is scheduled on April 10 to "consider" whether to arrest the vigilante who lynched by bullet our brother and son, Trayvon Martin, on Feb. 26.
International Day of Justice 4 Trayvon Martin
TUES, APRIL 10 TAKE TO THE STREETS
GATHER AT UNION SQUARE 6:00 P.M.
14th Street & Broadway, Manhattan in New York City
The People's Power Tour and Occupy 4 Jobs urges all organizations, activists and communities to UNITE AS ONE to tell the grand jury that we demand the arrest of George Zimmerman and hold the police responsible for him walking the streets free.
JUSTICE for TRAYVON MARTIN
JUSTICE FOR RAMARLEY GRAHAM & ALL VICTIMS OF POLICE BRUTALITY
STOP THE RACIST STOP & FRISK POLICY
JOBS NOT JAILS: A Massive Jobs Program for Youth,
No police & vigilante terror
STOP DEPORTATIONS of Undocumented Workers
NO MORE CUTS in Education, School Closings, Teacher & Faculty layoffs,
End tuition hikes
STOP THE WAR AGAINST YOUTH
For more information and to get involved email: info@occupy4jobs.org
www.occupy4Jobs.org
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Subject: From code pink: Occupy Oakland ENDORSES our NO WAR ON IRAN
April 17th Action!!!
NO WAR ON IRAN ACTION: Occupy & War(s)
April 17th, Tuesday, 12:00 noon - 5pm
Oakland Federal Building
In solidarity and action,
Xan Sam Joi
DISARM DISARM DISARM
work for peace; hold all life sacred; eliminate violence
www.codepinkjournals.blogspot.com
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Stand with Bradley Manning during the April 24-26 hearing
http://ymlp.com/zKyp5L
Write to Bradley Manning at:
Bradley Manning #89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
Bradley Manning Support Network:
http://www.bradleymanning.org/
Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
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6 Ways to Get Ready for the May 1st GENERAL STRIKE
by OccupyWallSt
Yesterday, 60,000 marched on Madison to mark the one-year anniversary of the passage of Governor Scott Walker's drastic dismantling of collective bargaining rights for public employees. Last year, Walker's attacks on labor rights sparked massive protests that saw hundreds of thousands occupy the Wisconsin capital building. Their actions prefigured Occupy Wall Street and inspired countless others to take a stand against economic inequality, political injustice, and the tyranny of the 1% enforced through politicians and banksters alike.
This is just one example that people across the globe are actively resisting attacks on the 99%. This year has already seen the largest-ever strike on record in India, hundreds of thousands marching for democracy in Bahrain, general strikes in Montreal and Spain where students once again occupied public space in protest of the austerity measures and spending cuts being enforced by the European banking elite, massive uprisings in the streets of Moscow, and more. Even in the United States, the movement grows. The corporate media claims that Occupy's strength is waning, but they are merely in denial. During the coldest months of this year, the United States has already seen more revolutionary momentum than it has in decades.
This winter, we refocused our energies on fostering ties with local communities, saving homes from corrupt banks and jobs from greedy corporations, and building and expanding our horizontal infrastructure. This #GlobalSpring, we will take the streets again. On May 1st, Occupy Wall Street has called for a General Strike. We are calling on everyone who supports the cause of economic justice and true democracy to take part: No Work, No School, No Housework, No Shopping, No Banking - and most importantly, TAKE THE STREETS!
We are getting ready. Planning is already underway in dozens of cities. Labor organizers, immigrants' rights groups, artists, Occupiers, faith leaders, and more have all joined in the discussion to get ready. Now, all we need is you. Keep reading to find out how you can get involved!
May 1st, also known as International Workers' Day, is the annual commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket Massacre in Chicago, when Chicago police fired on workers during a General Strike for the eight-hour workday. In many countries, May 1st is observed as a holiday. But in the United States, despite the eventual success of the eight-hour-workday campaign, the holiday is not officially recognized. In spite of this, May Day is already a powerful date in the U.S. In 2006, immigrant's rights groups took to the streets in unprecedented numbers in a national "Day Without An Immigrant" - a general strike aimed at proving the economic power of immigrants in the U.S. At least one million people marched in Chicago and Los Angeles alone. Hundreds of thousands more marched throughout cities across the U.S.
Now, in response to call-outs from Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Chicago, Occupy Oakland, and other General Assemblies and affinity groups, the Occupy Movement is preparing to mobilize a General Strike this May 1st in solidarity with struggles already underway to defend the rights of workers, immigrants, and other communities who are resisting oppression. Dozens of Occupations in cities and towns throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia have already endorsed May Day. Here is just a taste of events in the works for New York City:
* 8am-4pm: Midtown action staging zone in Bryant Park. * Disruptive actions in midtown all day! Hit the 1% where they live and prevent them from getting to work. Let's make this a Day Without the 1%, as well! * Family friendly, free food, a really, REALLY free market, skillshares, workshops, lectures, art, fun and more! * 4pm: March to Union Square for solidarity march * 5:30pm: Solidarity march from Union Square to Wall St. * 7pm: March to staging area for evening actions
And this is just the beginning. To quote the ConfederaciÃ_n Nacional del Trabajo, a major Spanish union, who recently called for a national General Strike in Spain on March 29th to protest labor reforms:
For the CNT, the strike on March 29 must be only the beginning of a growing and sustained process of mobilization, one which includes the entire working class and the sectors that are most disadvantaged and affected by the capitalist crisis. This mobilization must put the brakes on the dynamic of constant assaults on our rights, while laying the bases for the recovery and conquest of new social rights with the goal of a deep social transformation.
None of this would be possible without the grassroots support of everyday organizers who volunteer their time to grow the movement against Wall Street greed and political corruption. Here are eight simple things you can do to help advance the cause of equity for all:
[1] Work With Your Local Occupy: There are hundreds of Occupy groups still holding regular meetings and events. Chances are, there's one nearby. (And if there isn't yet - it's easy to start one!) General Assemblies are open to everyone, and everyone has a voice in the consensus planning process. So find your nearest Occupation and go to a GA! If they haven't already endorsed the General Strike, propose it to the group and start planning marches, distributing fliers, and forming direct action groups.
[2] Spread the Word On Social Media: Follow #M1GS, @OWSMayDay, @OccupyWallSt, and @OccupyGenStrike on Twitter. Also be sure to RSVP on Facebook and follow facebook.com/OccupyGeneralStrike. You can also look for city-specific events, like these from Chicago and Detroit.
[3] Start an Affinity Group: You can take action on your own. All you need are a few friends. Affinity groups are groups of people who know each other and come together autonomously for a particular action. Find a few people who are interested in helping you out on a project you have in mind - whether it's making fliers and literature to distribute, or shutting down a Wall Street bank in your hometown. Get creative, and get to work! (Here's a hint: OccuPrint collects, prints, and distributes posters from the worldwide Occupy movement, and they have a ton of amazing General Strike posters!)
[4] Join the General Strike Conference Calls: InterOccupy hosts regular calls to organize May 1st activities. Check out their schedule and join in the conversation!
[5] Talk to Labor: Due to federal laws, most unions are forbidden from organizing strikes for political reasons. However, unions and labor groups are still some of our strongest allies. During last year's General Strike in Oakland, many unions encouraged their workers to take the day off or attend demonstrations after work. Not long after Occupy Oakland shut down ports in solidarity with striking Longshoreman, their employers caved to the union's demands in a new contract. Get in touch with local unions and labor organizations, let them know about the plans for a General Strike, find out what they're working on and how you can help, and encourage them to let their members know about May 1st and get involved in organizing directly.
[6] Organize Your Workplace, Campus, or Community: If you're a unionized worker, encourage your union to support the General Strike. Whether your workplace is union or not, you can encourage co-workers to take a sick day on May 1st. If you can't afford to lose out on pay, that's okay - there will be plenty of celebrations, marches, and direct actions throughout all hours of the day. Invite your community to attend. If you're a student at a high school or college, spread the word to walk-out of class on May 1st. If you're not a worker or student, organize your friends!
More information: [MayDayNYC.org] | [OccupyMay1st.org] | [StrikeEverywhere.net] | [NYC General Assembly - May Day]
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Occupy Oakland Call for Participation in a May 1, 2012 Global General Strike
Occupy Oakland decides to participate in the Global General Strike on May Day!!!
The Occupy Oakland General Assembly passed the proposal today!
Occupy Oakland Call for Participation in a May 1, 2012 Global General Strike
The general strike is back, retooled for an era of deep budget cuts, extreme anti-immigrant racism, and massive predatory financial speculation. In 2011, the number of unionized workers in the US stood at 11.8%, or approximately 14.8 million people.
What these figures leave out are the growing millions of people in this country who are unemployed and underemployed. The numbers leave out the undocumented, and domestic and manual workers drawn largely from immigrant communities. The numbers leave out workers whose workplace is the home and a whole invisible economy of unwaged reproductive labor. The numbers leave out students who have taken on nearly $1 trillion dollars in debt, and typically work multiple jobs, in order to afford skyrocketing college tuition. The numbers leave out the huge percentage of black Americans that are locked up in prisons or locked out of stable or secure employment because of our racist society.
In December of 2011,Oakland's official unemployment rate was a devastating 14.1%. As cities like Oakland are ground into the dust by austerity, every last public dollar will be fed to corrupt, militarized police departments in order to contain social unrest. On November 2 of last year, Occupy Oakland carried out the first general strike in the US since the 1946 Oakland general strike,shutting down the center of the city and blockading the Port of Oakland. We must re-imagine a general strike for an age where most workers do not belong to labor unions, and where most of us are fighting for the privilege to work rather than for marginal improvements in working conditions. We must take the struggle into the streets, schools, and offices of corrupt local city governments. A re-imagined general strike means finding immediate solutions for communities impacted by budget cuts and constant police harassment beyond changing government representatives. Occupy Oakland calls for and will participate in a new direction for the Occupy movement based on the recognition that we must not only find new ways to provide for our needs beyond thestate we must also attack the institutions that lock us into an increasingly miserable life of exploitation, debt, and deepening poverty everywhere. IF WE CAN'T LIVE, WE WON'T WORK.
May Day is an international holiday that commemorates the 1886 Haymarket Massacre, when Chicago police defending, as always, the interests of the 1% attacked and murdered workers participating in a general strike and demanding an 8-hour workday. In the 21st century, despite what politicians tell us, class war is alive and well against workers (rank-and- file and non-unionized), students, people of color, un- and underemployed, immigrants, homeless, women, queer/trans folks, prisoners. Instead of finding common ground with monsters, it's time we fight them. And it's time we make fighting back an everyday reality in the Bay Area and beyond.
On May Day 2012, Occupy Oakland will join with people from all walks of life in all parts of the world around the world in a global general strike to shut down the global circulation of capital that every day serves to enrich the ruling classes and impoverish the rest of us. There will be no victory but that which we make for ourselves, reclaiming the means of existence from which we have been and continue to be dispossessed every day.
REVOLT FOR A LIFE WORTH LIVING
STRIKE / BLOCKADE / OCCUPY
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Occupy the PGA in Benton Harbor, MI May 23-27, 2012
http://wibailoutpeople.org/2011/12/29/occupy-the-pga-in-benton-harbor-mi-may-23-27-2012/
President/NAACP/BANCO
& Stop The Take Over
Benton Harbor
Rev. Edward Pinkney
1940 Union St.
Benton Harbor, MI
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B. VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/ or bauaw.org ...bw]
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Photo of George Zimmerman, in 2005 photo, left, and in a more recent photo.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/02/us/the-events-leading-to-the-sooting-of-trayvon-martin.html?hp
SPD Security Cams.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4&feature=player_embedded
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Kids being put on buses and transported from school to "alternate locations" in Terror Drills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFia_w8adWQ
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Private prisons,
a recession resistant investment opportunity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGLDOxx9Vg
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Attack Dogs used on a High School Walkout in MD, Four Students Charged With
"Thought Crimes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wafMaML17w
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Common forms of misconduct by Law Enforcement Officials and Prosecutors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViSpM4K276w&feature=related
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Organizing & Instigating: OCCUPY - Ronnie Goodman
http://arthazelwood.com/instigator/occupy/occupy-birth-video.html
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Rep News 12: Yes We Kony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8
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The New Black by The Mavrix - Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rLfja8488
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Japan One Year Later
http://www.onlineschools.org/japan-one-year-later/
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The CIA's Heart Attack Gun
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/assassination-studies/the-cias-heart-attack-gun-.html
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Occupy The PGA
May 23-27 (big day: Sat. May 26) - Benton Harbor, Michigan
Demonstrate in protest of land stolen by Whirlpool Corporation
http://occupythepga.wordpress.com/
bhbanco.org
Rev. Edward Pinkney 269-925-0001
Occupy The PGA
May 23-27 (big day: Sat. May 26) - Benton Harbor, Michigan
Demonstrate in protest of land stolen by Whirlpool Corporation
http://occupythepga.wordpress.com/
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The Invisible American Workforce
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/5/new_expos_tracks_alec_private_prison
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Labor Beat: NATO vs The 1st Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQxnb4so3U
For more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org.
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Anti-War Demonstrators Storm Pentagon 1967/10/24
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDiFkckszCw
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Liberal Hypocrisy on Obama Vs Bush - Poll
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl_HGEXq_aM&feature=player_embedded
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Greek trade unionists and black bloc October 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHMLD_Vql0o&feature=player_embedded#!
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The Battle of Oakland
by brandon jourdan plus
http://vimeo.com/36256273
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Officers Pulled Off Street After Tape of Beating Surfaces
By ANDY NEWMAN
February 1, 2012, 10:56 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/officers-pulled-off-street-after-tape-of-beating-surfaces/?ref=nyregion
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Defending The People's Mic
by Pham Binh of Occupy Wall Street
The North Star
January 20, 2012
http://www.thenorthstar.info/?p=53
Grand Central Terminal Arrests - MIRROR
Two protesters mic check about the loss of freedom brought about by the passage of the NDAA and both are promptly arrested and whisked out of public sight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Tj7tEVx8A&feature=player_embedded
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This is excellent! Michelle Alexander pulls no punches!
Michelle Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow, speaks about the political strategy
behind the War on Drugs and its connection to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people in the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P75cbEdNo2U&feature=player_embedded
If you think Bill Clinton was "the first black President" you need to watch this video and see how much damage his administration caused for the black community as a result of his get tough attitude on crime that appealed to white swing voters.
This speech took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on January 12, 2012.
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NATO, G8 In Chicago: More Details Released, City Grants First Protest Permit
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
January 12, 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/12/nato-g8-in-chicago-more-d_n_1203429.html
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Release Bradley Manning
Almost Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning)
Written by Graham Nash and James Raymond (son of David Crosby)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYG7yJpBbQ&feature=player_embedded
Locked up in a white room, underneath a glaring light
Every 5 minutes, they're asking me if I'm alright
Locked up in a white room naked as the day I was born
24 bright light, 24 all alone
What I did was show some truth to the working man
What I did was blow the whistle and the games began
Tell the truth and it will set you free
That's what they taught me as a child
But I can't be silent after all I've seen and done
24 bright light I'm almost gone, almost gone
Locked up in a white room, dying to communicate
Trying to hang in there underneath a crushing wait
Locked up in a white room I'm always facing time
24 bright light, 24 down the line
What I did was show some truth to the working man
What I did was blow the whistle and the games began
But I did my duty to my country first
That's what they taught me as a man
But I can't be silent after all I've seen and done
24 bright light I'm almost gone, almost gone
(Treat me like a human, Treat me like a man )
Read more on Nash's blog - grahamnash.com
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FREEDOM ROAD - A Tribute to Mumia sung by Renn Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC27vzqxSCA&feature=youtu.be
FREEDOM ROAD
(written by Samuel Lagitimus- adapted in English, sung and arranged by Paris-Sydney)
They've taken all you had away
And what's left, still they can't bend
To find you guilty was their way
Yet here I am and you're my friend.
Your writing's proof enough for me, Mumia,
You place honor and law
Above all, till the end.
Thirty years gone by
On death row, we never knew
Anything of the weight
You had to carry while you grew.
But they won't get you, no, Mumia, no
We won't let them ever win
Won't let you bear such a heavy load
While walking down the Freedom Road.
(Instrumental)
Like Jimmy (1) and Bob (2) you've lived to see the light:
Believing that all men
Can stand up for their rights.
Accusing you of crime
From behind their scales they hide
It makes them scared deep down inside
To know that truth is on your side.
But they won't get you, no, Mumia, no,
We won't let them ever win
Won't let you bear such a heavy load
While walking down the Freedom Road.
(Instumental)
Those thirty years gone by
On death row, we never knew
Anything of the weight
You had to carry while you grew.
We've named a street for you, Mumia
A lovely rue in Saint-Denis
By joining hands we're showing you
Proof of our strength and peace.
But they won't get you, no, Mumia, no,
We won't let them ever win
Won't let you bear such a heavy load
While walking down the Freedom Road.X2
But they won't get you, no, Mumia, no
We won't let them ever win
Won't let them block you from getting in,
Into your home on Freedom Road.
But they won't get you no Mumia,
We will win, we'll never bend
For thirty years you've shown us all
Just how to fight until the end.
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School police increasingly arresting American students?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-efNBvjUU&feature=player_embedded
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FYI:
Nuclear Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"
The 2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are plotted visually and audibly on a world map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk&feature=share&mid=5408
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We Are the 99 Percent
We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Brought to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?
OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org
wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
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Drop All Charges on the 'Occupy Wall Street' Arrestees!
Stop Police Attacks & Arrests! Support 'Occupy Wall Street'!
SIGN THE ONLINE PETITION AT:
http://bailoutpeople.org/dropchargesonoccupywallstarrestees.shtml
DROP ALL CHARGES ON THE OCCUPY WALL STREET ARRESTEES!
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We Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAOJsBxAxY
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In honor of the 75th Anniversary of the 44-Day Flint Michigan sit-down strike at GM that began December 30, 1936:
According to Michael Moore, (Although he has done some good things, this clip isn't one of them) in this clip from his film, "Capitalism a Love Story," it was Roosevelt who saved the day!):
"After a bloody battle one evening, the Governor of Michigan, with the support of the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, sent in the National Guard. But the guns and the soldiers weren't used on the workers; they were pointed at the police and the hired goons warning them to leave these workers alone. For Mr. Roosevelt believed that the men inside had a right to a redress of their grievances." -Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'
- Flint Sit-Down Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1_q9wg58
But those cannons were not aimed at the goons and cops! They were aimed straight at the factory filled with strikers! Watch what REALLY happened and how the strike was really won!
'With babies & banners' -- 75 years since the 44-day Flint sit-down strike
http://links.org.au/node/2681
--Inspiring
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HALLELUJAH CORPORATIONS (revised edition).mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g
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ONE OF THE GREATEST POSTS ON YOUTUBE SO FAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8C-qIgbP9o&feature=share&mid=552
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ILWU Local 10 Longshore Workers Speak-Out At Oakland Port Shutdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUpBpZYwms
Uploaded by laborvideo on Dec 13, 2011
ILWU Local 10 longshore workers speak out during a blockade of the Port of Oakland called for by Occupy Oakland. Anthony Levieges and Clarence Thomas rank and file members of the union. The action took place on December 12, 2011 and the interview took place at Pier 30 on the Oakland docks.
For more information on the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT struggle go to
http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/
For further info on the action and the press conferernce go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3fE-Vhrw8&feature=youtu.be
Production of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
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UC Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19 November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-adds-fuel-to-fire
UC Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
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UC Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
Occupy Seattle - 84 Year Old Woman Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIyE_JlJzw&feature=related
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THE BEST VIDEO ON "OCCUPY THE WORLD"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o
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Shot by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0pX9LeE-g8&feature=player_embedded
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Copwatch@Occupy Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0
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Occupy Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu_D8SFYck&feature=player_embedded
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Quebec police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest were actually undercover Quebec police officers:
POLICE STATE Criminal Cops EXPOSED As Agent Provocateurs @ SPP Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiisMMCFT0&feature=player_embedded
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Quebec police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=player_embedded
G20: Epic Undercover Police Fail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ7aU-n1L8&feature=player_embedded
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WHAT HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:
Occupy Oakland Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded
Cops make mass arrests at occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded
Raw Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded
Occupy Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded
KTVU TV Video of Police violence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html
Marine Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded
Tear Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded
Arrests at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded
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Labor Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I
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Voices of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be
Voices of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related
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#Occupy Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of Egypt's Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded
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#OccupyTheHood, Occupy Wall Street
By adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870
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Live arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded
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FREE THE CUBAN FIVE!
http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded
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One World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded
"When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson
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Japan: angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded
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FREE BRADLEY MANNING
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/national-call-in-for-bradley
I received the following reply from the White House November 18, 2011 regarding the Bradley Manning petition I signed:
"Why We Can't Comment on Bradley Manning
"Thank you for signing the petition 'Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused WikiLeaks whistleblower.' We appreciate your participation in the We the People platform on WhiteHouse.gov.
The We the People Terms of Participation explain that 'the White House may decline to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or similar matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or agencies, federal courts, or state and local government.' The military justice system is charged with enforcing the Uniform Code of
Military Justice. Accordingly, the White House declines to comment on the specific case raised in this petition...
That's funny! I guess Obama didn't get this memo. Here's what Obama said about Bradley:
BRADLEY MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be charged, let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the President to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with a crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011- Presidential remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at fundraiser. Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
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Labor Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand Jury Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse Sharkey, Vice
President, Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
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Julian Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
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Coal Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
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C. SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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Antiwar/Social Justice Activist Arrested
Support Joe Callahan
On July 31, 2011, after two Salvadoran immigrants went to Canada to apply for asylum, long-time Twin Cities activist Joe Callahan was arrested by Canadian police at the Pigeon River border station. At the time Joe was alone in his car. The Canadian police used a backpack, maps and other items found in Joe's car as the grounds for his arrest.
Joe was charged with "aiding and abetting an immigration without a visa," and "providing false and misleading information." As a result of these charges, Joe was locked up in the Thunder Bay District Jail in cramped, crowded conditions where inmates are frequently forced to sleep on the floor, as Joe did for the first several days he was there. While Joe was in custody, the authorities added the charge of "smuggling" or "human trafficking." This charge is much more serious and carries a maximum sentence of ten years.
After one month Joe was released on bail and was allowed to return to the Minneapolis area, pending trial. He is restricted to the Twin Cities area as a condition of his release. Meanwhile, the prosecuting attorney, or "Crown Attorney," as they are called in Canada, informed Joe's defense attorneys that he is seeking a sentence of three or four years. The trial will be held in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The date has not yet been set. Joe is being represented by Mary Bird and Francis Thatcher, a prominent attorney in the Aboriginal rights struggle.
Over the last thirty years Joe has been active in solidarity work for Central America and Cuba. He has been an active defender of immigration rights. He was also active against an attempt to reinstate the death penalty in Minnesota. His record in the fight for justice goes back to his youth. As a student he was active in the anti-Vietnam war movement.
For four and a half years Joe worked for the Metro Transit System as a bus driver, and was a member of the Amalgamated Transit Union. He has spent his working life in blue collar, unionized jobs. Now, because of his legal difficulties, he has been forced to take a lower-paying position as a driver for a small bus company.
Joe Callahan is NOT a human trafficker! Joe is NOT a smuggler! These charges against him are unfounded and they should be dropped. Joe is a political activist concerned about the rights of immigrants. He needs the help of all supporters of democratic rights.
You can aid in Joe's defense:
--Send donations to: Joe Callahan Support Committee, 2919 Polk St. NE, Minneapolis, Mn 55418
--Circulate this letter and urge others to sign. New signers can sign via email to: joecallahansupport@hotmail.com
--Attend Joe's trial in Thunder Bay, Ontario. For more information contact: supportjoe.wordpress.com or joecallahansupport@hotmail.com
In solidarity,
Michael Rattner, President, Center for Constitutional Rights; Michael Steven Smith, Esq. Co-host, Law and Disorder; Jeff Mackler, Dir., Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu Jamal; Roger Sheppard, Member, Local 105 IBEW (retired); Barbara Mutnick, activist, Queens, New York; Cliff Conner, author, "A People's History of Science"; Marv Gandall, activist, Ottawa Canada; Walker Jones, activist, Ottawa Canada; Bruce Scheff, Chicago, IL; -Continued on page 2-; Support Joe Callahan, page 2; Dianne Feeley, Editor, Against the Current; Alan Wald, Editor, Against the Current; Malik Miah, Editor, Against the Current; John Riddell, Toronto; Suzanne Weiss, Toronto; Art Young, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly; Linda Meissenheimer, Toronto; Brad Sigal, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition; Marie Braun, Twin Cities Peace Campaign; Dave Bicking, Green Party; Alan Dale, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition; Tracy Molm, Students for a Democratic Society; Eric Angell, co-producer, "Our World in "Depth"; Colleen McGilp, AFSCME (retired); Jess Sundin, Anti-War Committee; Bruce Nestor, Past President, National Lawyers Guild; Linden Gawboy, Committee to Stop FBI Repression; Tim O'Brien, Hands Off Honduras; Anh Pham, Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Coalition; Timothy Jordan, architect, Minneapolis; Kay Pitney, activist, Minneapolis; Jennie Eisert, Anti-War Committee; Beth Shapiro, Women Against Military Madness; Joel Greenberg, Chicago, Il.; Mark Satinoff, shop steward, IAM Local Lodge 1894, Queens, NY; Carol Hayse, LCSW Note: Organizations for Identification Purposes Only
This letter has been approved by the Joe Callahan Support Committee. Please circulate this letter as widely as possible to potential supporters.
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LATEST ON LYNNE STEWART:
Free-Speech Argument in Appeal of Disbarred Lawyer's Sentence
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
February 29, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/nyregion/free-speech-is-cited-in-appeal-of-lynne-stewarts-10-year-sentence.html?ref=nyregion
Write to Lynne Stewart Defense Committee at:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information: 718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
DEFEND LYNNE STEWART!
http://lynnestewart.org/
Write to Lynne Stewart at:
Lynne Stewart #53504 - 054
Unit 2N
Federal Medical Center, Carswell
P.O. Box 27137
Fort Worth, TEXAS 76127
Visiting Lynne:
Visiting is very liberal but first she has to get people on her visiting list; wait til she or the
lawyers let you know. The visits are FRI, SAT, SUN AND MON for 4 hours and on weekends 8
to 3. Bring clear plastic change purse with lots of change to buy from the machines. Brief Kiss
upon arrival and departure, no touching or holding during visit (!!) On visiting forms it may
be required that you knew me before I came to prison. Not a problem for most of you.
Commissary Money:
Commissary Money is always welcome It is how Lynne pay for the phone and for email.
Also for a lot that prison doesn't supply in terms of food and "sundries" (pens!) (A very big
list that includes Raisins, Salad Dressing, ankle sox, mozzarella (definitely not from Antonys--
more like a white cheddar, Sanitas Corn Chips but no Salsa, etc. To add money, you do this by
using Western Union and a credit card by phone or you can send a USPO money order or
Business or Govt Check. The negotiable instruments (PAPER!) need to be sent to Federal
Bureau of Prisons, 53504-054, Lynne Stewart, PO Box 474701, Des Moines Iowa 50947-001
(Payable to Lynne Stewart, 53504-054) They hold the mo or checks for 15 days. Western
Union costs $10 but is within 2 hours. If you mail, your return address must be on the
envelope. Unnecessarily complicated? Of course, it's the BOP !)
The address of her Defense Committee is:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street
Brooklyn, New York 11216
For further information:
718-789-0558 or 917-853-9759
Please make a generous contribution to her defense.
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Free Mumia NOW!
Prisonradio.org
Write to Mumia
Mumia Abu-Jamal AM 8335
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Road
Frackville, PA 17932
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Urgent Appeal to Occupy and All Social Justice Movements: Mobilize to Defend the
Egyptian Revolution
Endorse the statement here:
http://www.defendegyptianrevolution.org/2011/12/19/defend-the-egyptian-revolution/
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Tarek Mehanna - another victim of the U.S. War to Terrorize Everyone. He was targeted because he would not spy on his Muslim community for the FBI. Under the new NDAA indefinite military detention provision, Tarek is someone who likely would never come to a trial, although an American citizen. His sentencing is on April 12. There will be an appeal.
Another right we may kiss goodbye. We should not accept the verdict and continue to fight for his release, just as we do for hero Bradley Manning, and all the many others unjustly persecuted by our government until it is the war criminals on trial, prosecuted by the people, and not the other way around.
Marilyn Levin
Official defense website: http://freetarek.com/
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HANDS OFF IRAN PETITION
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hands-off-iran/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=system&utm_campaign=Send%2Bto%2BFriend
(For a complete analysis of the prospects of war, click here)
http://nepajac.org/unaciran.htm
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"A Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against Censorship" book
https://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=25
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Say No to Police Repression of NATO Protests
http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/nato-g8-police-repression
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Justice for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana state prisons must end
Take Action -- Sign Petition Here:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herman-wallace
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WITNESS GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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Write to Bradley
http://bradleymanning.org/donate
View the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:
I am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s
Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
"A Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:
Bradley Manning 89289
830 Sabalu Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027
The receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends Bradley Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811
This is also a Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=207100509321891
Courage to Resist needs your support
Please donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning has been defending and supporting our Constitution." --Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
Jeff Paterson
Project Director, Courage to Resist
First US military service member to refuse to ï¬ght in Iraq
Please donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S. I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly becoming a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to make a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please click here to forward this to a friend who might also be interested in supporting GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
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Drop the Charges Against Carlos Montes, Stop the FBI Attack on the Chicano and Immigrant Rights Movement, and Stop FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW! Call Off the Expanding Grand Jury Witchhunt and FBI Repression of Anti-War Activists NOW!
Cancel the Subpoenas! Cancel the Grand Juries! Condemn the FBI Raids and Harassment of Chicano, Immigrant Rights, Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists!
STOP THE FBI CAMPAIGN OF REPRESSION AGAINST CHICANO, IMMIGRANT RIGHTS, ANTI-WAR AND INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY ACTIVISTS NOW!
Initiated by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression stopfbi.net
stopfbi@gmail.com
Contact the Committee to Stop FBI Repression
at stopfbi.net
stopfbi@gmail.com
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY -- ANY DAY
to Fitzgerald, Holder and Obama
The Grand Jury is still on its witch hunt and the FBI is still harassing activists. This must stop.
Please make these calls:
1. Call U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald at 312-353-5300 . Then dial 0(zero) for operator and ask to leave a message with the Duty Clerk.
2. Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder 202-353-1555
3. Call President Obama at 202-456-1111
FFI: Visit www.StopFBI.net or email info@StopFBI.net or call
612-379-3585 .
Our mailing address is:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
PO Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
Please make a donation today at stopfbi.net (PayPal) on the right side of your screen. Also you can write to:
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
P.O. Box 14183
Minneapolis, MN 55414
This is a critical time for us to stand together, defend free speech, and defend those who help to organize for peace and justice, both at home and abroad!
Thank you for your generosity! Tom Burke
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The Battle Is Still On To
FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
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Call for EMERGENCY RESPONSE Action if Assange Indicted,
Dear Friends:
We write in haste, trying to reach as many of you as possible although the holiday break has begun.......This plan for an urgent "The Day After" demonstration is one we hope you and many, many more organizations will take up as your own, and mobilize for. World Can't Wait asks you to do all you can to spread it through list serves, Facebook, twitter, holiday gatherings.
Our proposal is very very simple, and you can use the following announcement to mobilize - or write your own....
ANY DAY NOW . . . IN THE EVENT THAT THE U.S. INDICTS JULIAN ASSANGE HANDS OFF WIKILEAKS! FREE JULIAN ASSANGE! FREE BRADLEY MANNING!
Join the HUMAN CHAIN AROUND THE FEDERAL BUILDING!
New Federal Building, 7th and Mission, San Francisco (nearest BART: Civic Center)
4:00-6:00 PM on The Day FOLLOWING U.S. indictment of Assange
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/mannings-message-christmas-eve-i-gr/
Demonstrations defending Wikileaks and Assange, and Brad Manning, have already been flowering around the world. Make it happen here too. Especially here . . .
To join into this action plan, or with questions, contact World Can't Wait or whichever organization or listserve you received this message from.
World Can't Wait, SF Bay
415-864-5153
sf@worldcantwait.org
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle Editorial
Monday, December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's death row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
17 December 2010
Click here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html
and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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D. ARTICLES IN FULL (Unless otherwise noted)
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1) Half of Irish Homeowners Join Boycott of New Property Tax
By DOUGLAS DALBY
April 2, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/world/europe/half-of-irish-homeowners-join-
boycott-of-household-tax.html?ref=world
2) California: Affirmative Action Ban Upheld
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 3, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/california-affirmative-action-ban-
upheld.html?ref=us
3) Missouri: Bat Disease Moves West
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 3, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/missouri-bat-disease-moves-west.html?ref=us
4) As Part of New Pact, U.S. Marines Arrive in Australia
By MATT SIEGEL
April 4, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/world/asia/us-marines-arrive-darwin-
australia.html?hp
5) Chancellor Asks Community College to Hold Off on Tuition Plan
By JENNIFER MEDINA
April 5, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/us/santa-monica-college-asked-to-hold-off-on-tuition-plan.html?_r=1&hp
6) Public Suicide for Greek Man With Fiscal Woe
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
April 4, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/world/europe/greek-man-ends-financial-despair-with-bullet.html?ref=world
7) Five Ex-Officers Sentenced in Post-Katrina Shootings
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
April 4, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/us/5-ex-officers-sentenced-in-post-katrina-shootings.html?ref=us
8) Plan to Let Poultry Plants Inspect Birds Is Criticized
By RON NIXON
April 4, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/us/usda-poultry-inspection-plan-sets-off-dispute.html?ref=us
9) Graphic: The Billionaires' Club
By BEN PROTESS
[Graphic at link ...bw]
April 5, 2012, 1:06 pm
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/graphic-the-billionaires-club/?src=busln
10) Playing the Violence Card
By KHALIL GIBRAN MUHAMMAD
April 5, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/opinion/playing-the-violence-card.html?hp
11) Pensioner's Suicide Continues to Shake Greece
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
April 5, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/world/europe/pensioners-suicide-continues-to-shake-greece.html?ref=world
12) Japan: Plant Leaks Radioactive Water
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 5, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/world/asia/japan-plant-leaks-radioactive-water.html?ref=world
13) Occupiers Hold a Slumber Party Near Union Square
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
April 6, 2012, 10:54 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/occupiers-hold-a-slumber-party-near-union-square/?ref=nyregion
14) In Lawsuits, Long Island Inmates Complain of Squalor
"Though many prisoners at the facilities are serving short sentences, a majority of them have not been convicted of a crime and were awaiting trial. ...The civil liberties union said inmates who made formal complaints or filed lawsuits over jail conditions were subjected to retaliation from correction officers. Mr. Porter said nothing was done about the complaints until the inmates decided to take their grievances to the courts. 'So they stepped up and filed the petitions,' he said. 'Jurisprudence is not that difficult once you get the hang of it.'"
By MOSI SECRET
April 5, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/nyregion/in-lawsuits-suffolk-county-inmates-complain-of-squalor.html?ref=nyregion
15) Anti-War Conference Against "Humanitarian Imperialism"
Glen Ford: Americans should oppose US military interventions everywhere
April 8, 2012
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=814
16) Welfare Limits Left Poor Adrift as Recession Hit
By JASON DePARLE
April 7, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/us/welfare-limits-left-poor-adrift-as-recession-hit.html?_r=1&hp
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1) Half of Irish Homeowners Join Boycott of New Property Tax
By DOUGLAS DALBY
April 2, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/world/europe/half-of-irish-homeowners-join-
boycott-of-household-tax.html?ref=world
DUBLIN - Anti-austerity protesters are claiming victory after the government acknowledged that around 50 percent of Ireland's estimated 1.6 million homeowners failed to pay a new, flat-rate $133 property tax by the March 31 deadline.
"It is quite clear a mass boycott has really sent this government a significant message it didn't want to hear," Luke Flanagan, one of the parliamentary deputies leading the opposition to the new household charge, said in an interview on Monday. "When we started this campaign, even 25 percent support translating to several hundred thousand would have been phenomenal, but we estimate over a million people eligible to pay this tax have refused."
Introduced on Jan. 1, the household charge was intended as a forerunner to a comprehensive property tax next year. It has become a lightning rod for widespread disenchantment on an assortment of issues like cuts to services, findings of political corruption, taxpayer liability for debts to private banks and even European legislation intended to enhance wastewater treatment from septic tanks.
Ireland has had five austerity budgets in four years and faces at least four more through 2016 as it tries to cut its deficit to an agreed 3 percent of gross domestic product from its current 10 percent. The European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund have lent Ireland $90 billion but in turn have demanded spending cuts and tax increases.
The Irish government argues that it has no choice but to introduce the interim tax at the behest of its lenders and has vowed to identify and prosecute those who have refused to pay.
"We will begin with sending out letters and then escalate it from there to the maximum fine of 2,500 euros" - $3,330 - "on top of the outstanding amounts due in late fees and interest," a spokesman for the Department of Environment said in an interview on Monday. "We will be taking people to court if necessary, and if there is refusal to pay, then that could be seen by a judge as contempt of court."
Opponents, like Joe Higgins, a Socialist Party deputy, argue that the likelihood of this happening is slim. He said that he believed the government would tread warily over the coming months as it tries to persuade the electorate to pass a referendum on May 31 binding Ireland to budgetary constraint.
"I think they will adopt a softly, softly approach so as not to alienate people further in the next two months," he said. "But if a substantial cohort of the decent, law-abiding people of this country continue to make a stand, there is no government that can stand against them."
The government is now concentrating on linking the new tax explicitly with the provision of local services in a bid to persuade people to "do their patriotic duty." The minister for environment, Phil Hogan, who is responsible for introducing the charge, has even suggested that local authorities prepared "to pull out all the stops" in collecting the tax may be rewarded. This was widely interpreted to mean others would be penalized by disproportionate cuts from central funding to local services like libraries, playgrounds and swimming pools.
The government remains determined to collect and still believes most people will be prepared to pay the charge eventually, rather than risk prosecution or escalating fines. Both sides are aware of the importance of weight of numbers: the government is hoping there will be a tipping point that will end the rebellion as the protest dwindles. While acknowledging the potential psychological impact of maintaining its current base of nonpayers, Mr. Flanagan said many would carry on regardless. "I don't care if 99.9 percent of people end up paying it," Mr. Flanagan said. "I won't be paying it and there are plenty like me."
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2) California: Affirmative Action Ban Upheld
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 3, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/california-affirmative-action-ban-
upheld.html?ref=us
A federal appeals court panel on Monday upheld California's ban on using race, ethnicity and gender in admitting students to public colleges and universities. The ruling was the second time the Ninth United States Circuit Court of Appeals turned back a challenge to the state's landmark voter initiative, Proposition 209, which was passed in 1996. Affirmative action proponents, who had requested that the court reconsider its 1997 decision after the United States Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that affirmative action could be used in college admissions, said they would ask the full appellate court to review the case since this decision was issued by a three-judge panel. At least six states have adopted bans on affirmative action in state college admissions. Besides California, they include Michigan, Arizona, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington. In its ruling, the court rejected the plaintiffs' arguments that a new ruling is needed and said the previous decision still applies. In February, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case against the University of Texas alleging that affirmative action is discriminatory. If the court decides against the university, the ruling could definitively end consideration of race in public university admissions.
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3) Missouri: Bat Disease Moves West
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 3, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/missouri-bat-disease-moves-west.html?ref=us
A disease that has killed millions of bats across 16 states and Canada has been found in Missouri, marking its advent west of the Mississippi River and spelling possible trouble for agriculture in the region, officials said Monday. The disease, white nose syndrome has, been confirmed in three bats in two caves in Lincoln County, north of St. Louis, the Missouri Department of Conservation said. The name describes a white fungus found on the faces and wings of infected bats and has not been found to infect humans or other animals. It had been found only as far west as Kentucky until the Missouri discovery. Ann Froschauer of the federal Fish and Wildlife Service said the spread of the disease could affect crops because bats subsist at least in part on crop pests. She said a recent study estimated that bats provide about $22 billion a year in "ecological services" in part because of all the pests they consume. The Missouri Department of Conservation estimated Missouri's gray bats alone eat about 540 tons of insects each year.
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4) As Part of New Pact, U.S. Marines Arrive in Australia
By MATT SIEGEL
April 4, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/world/asia/us-marines-arrive-darwin-
australia.html?hp
SYDNEY, Australia â€" Defense Minister Stephen Smith greeted about 180 Marines in the northern coast city of Darwin on Wednesday, presiding at a welcome ceremony for the first of 2,500 American troops to be deployed here under an agreement increasing the American military presence in Chinaâs strategic backyard.
The Marines will engage in training exercises with the Australian Defense Force during their six-month rotation as part of the agreement signed in November by President Obama and Prime Minister Julia Gillard of Australia. The pact is part of the presidentâ€(tm)s publicly stated strategy of shifting the American militaryâ€(tm)s long-term focus toward the Pacific and an increasingly assertive China. Beijing has accused Mr. Obama of escalating military tensions in the region.
Ahead of the welcome ceremony, Mr. Smith touched on the changing regional dynamics during an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
"We see this very much as responding and reflecting the fact that the world is moving into our part of the world, the world is moving to the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean," Mr. Smith said. "We need to respond to that. The world needs to essentially come to grips with the rise of China, the rise of India, the move of strategic and political and economic influence to our part of the world."
The United States has had military bases in the North Pacific since the end of World War II, but its presence in Southeast Asia was greatly diminished in the early 1990s. Strengthened ties with Australia, one of Washingtonâ€(tm)s foremost allies, will restore a substantial American footprint near the South China Sea, a major commercial shipping route that has been increasingly the focus of Chinese territorial disputes.
There has been speculation here in recent weeks about what form any further regional military cooperation between the long-time allies would take. Ms. Gillard last week confirmed that discussions with Washington were under way about the possibility of flying long-range American surveillance drones from the remote Cocos Islands â€" an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean â€" but said no substantial progress had been made on the issue.
A spokesman for Mr. Smith told The Australian newspaper that the top three priorities to come out of last yearâ€(tm)s bilateral agreement were the deployment of the Marines over five years, the greater use of Australian Air Force bases for American aircraft and, in the longer term, the prospect of increased ship and submarine visits to the Indian Ocean through a naval base outside of Perth, on the countryâ€(tm)s west coast.
Jeffrey Bleich, the American ambassador to Australia, was quick to dismiss what seemed to be a growing media consensus here that the increased military presence in the region was aimed primarily at containing China.
"Thereâ€(tm)s this kind of sexy, fun narrative that you hear from pundits and others trying to suggest this is about China, but itâ€(tm)s not," he said in an interview with Sky TV over the weekend. "If you just look at the Darwin decision, for example: weâ€(tm)ve had our Marines stationed in Central Asia, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they are mostly an amphibious force. So they need to start training and doing amphibious maneuvers again, and weâ€(tm)re looking for the best place to do it and the best partners to do it with, and Darwin is an ideal spot for it."
But Michael Fullilove, director of the Global Issues Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that addressing Chinaâ€(tm)s recent assertiveness was definitely one of the major aspects of the policy. Australia views the presence of American forces in the region as a counterbalance to what it sees as Beijingâ€(tm)s sometimes erratic foreign policy, he said.
"Given that we know that rising powers can disrupt the system," he said, "it makes sense to balance against the risk of future Chinese recklessness by keeping the U.S. engaged in the region. The more that power can be diffused so that it is spread across different capitals, the less likely you are to have unreasonable actions where one power ignores the otherâ€(tm)s needs."
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5) Chancellor Asks Community College to Hold Off on Tuition Plan
By JENNIFER MEDINA
April 5, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/us/santa-monica-college-asked-to-hold-off-on-tuition-plan.html?_r=1&hp
LOS ANGELES - The chancellor of the California community college system has requested that Santa Monica College hold off on its plan to offer popular courses with higher tuition this summer, saying that the legality of the program is still in question.
The request came a day after a student protest at the college ended with a campus police officer spraying dozens of people with pepper spray, several of whom suffered minor injuries. Many students and faculty members have criticized the plan saying it violates the long tradition of community colleges as havens for those without the means to afford four-year colleges.
The chancellor, Jack Scott, had already made it clear that he was wary of the community college's plan to charge more for some popular classes and said it could violate state education codes. He has asked the state's attorney general for an opinion, which he expects to receive in the next week.
Last month, the board of trustees at the college approved a plan that would offer about 50 high-demand courses at $180 a unit, rather than the regular $36 tuition. College administrators have said that the higher tuition would cover their costs.
For years, the college has faced increased demand and overcrowded classes at the same time as the state has cut financing to the community colleges. Students routinely complain about not being able to register for classes that they need for job training and transferring to four-year schools - a problem that plagues community colleges across the country.
Chui L. Tsang, the president of Santa Monica College has said that he believes the plan is legal and is the only way to try to meet the demand for more seats in classes.
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6) Public Suicide for Greek Man With Fiscal Woe
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
April 4, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/world/europe/greek-man-ends-financial-despair-with-bullet.html?ref=world
ATHENS - A 77-year-old Greek pensioner distraught over his financial state shot himself in the head in the capital's busy main square near Parliament on Wednesday morning. "I don't want to leave debts to my children," he shouted before pulling the trigger, witnesses said.
The location, Syntagma Square, is a focal point for frequent public demonstrations and protests. It was full of commuters using the nearby metro station when the man killed himself, around 9 a.m. Shocked witnesses told state television that the man positioned himself under a tree, cried out and fired.
The local news media identified the man as Dimitris Christoulas, a retired pharmacist, and said he left a note saying he could not face the prospect "of scavenging through garbage bins for food and becoming a burden to my child." The police did not immediately confirm the existence of a note, but identical passages were reproduced in nearly all the Greek news media.
Three paragraphs of handwritten red text called on young Greeks to take up arms. "I believe that young people with no future will one day take up arms and hang the traitors of this country at Syntagma square, just like the Italians did to Mussolini in 1945," said one passage.
The suicide prompted an outpouring from politicians. In a statement, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos said, "In these difficult times for our country we must all - the state and its citizens - support those next to us who are in despair." On Wednesday evening, Greeks held a vigil in Syntagma Square, while many posted notes of condolence and protest on trees.
Reports said the note blamed "the occupation government of Tsolakoglou for taking away any chance for my survival."
Georgios Tsolakoglou was a collaborationist prime minister during Germany's occupation of Greece during World War II. Germany has drawn the ire of many Greeks in the last year, thanks to its role in shaping harsh austerity measures Greece was required to enact in return for billions of euros in loans from foreign creditors to avert sovereign default. The arrangement helps Europe by stabilizing the euro, but at the cost of financial ruin for some individuals and shrinking the country's social safety net.
The number of suicides reported in Greece over the past three years has risen sharply, a trend experts attribute to repercussions of the debt crisis, including rising unemployment, now at 21 percent, and deepening poverty. Before the crisis, Greece had one of the lowest suicide rates in Europe, just over 300 a year. In 2009, the police recorded 507 suicides; in 2010, 622; and last year, 598.
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7) 5 Ex-Officers Sentenced in Post-Katrina Shootings
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
April 4, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/us/5-ex-officers-sentenced-in-post-katrina-shootings.html?ref=us
NEW ORLEANS - Five former police officers were sentenced to prison on Wednesday for the shooting of six unarmed civilians, two of whom died, in the days after Hurricane Katrina and for orchestrating a wide-ranging cover-up afterward.
The four officers directly involved in the shooting were sentenced in federal court to lengthy terms ranging from 38 to 65 years, while a police sergeant who was charged with investigating the shooting, and instead helped lead the efforts to hide and distort what happened, was sentenced to six years.
But while the sentences were long, they were not nearly as long as prosecutors were seeking - in one case less than a third of the sentence the government recommended - and for the most part were either the mandatory minimum or a few years more than the minimum.
Before delivering the sentences, Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana gave a two-hour speech condemning mandatory minimum sentences for interfering with judicial discretion and criticizing the case put together by federal prosecutors, saying in particular that he was "astonished and deeply troubled" by the plea deals with cooperating witnesses at the heart of the government's case.
Three police officers who pleaded guilty and later testified at the trial were involved in the shooting on the bridge and received sentences ranging from five to eight years. Two others, a detective and a police lieutenant who helped orchestrate the cover-up, were sentenced to three and four years.
The judge spoke of an "air of mendacity" about the prosecution, charging that the plea bargains - which involved lesser charges that came with capped sentences - had limited his discretion in sentencing those who were convicted.
Prosecutors afterward defended their strategy, explaining to reporters that the case was cold when the Justice Department picked it up after a mishandled prosecution by the local district attorney and a dismissal of all charges by a judge in 2008.
"I've never seen an easy police case in my life," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, who called it the most significant police misconduct prosecution since the Rodney King beating case in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. "I have in particular observed in the New Orleans Police Department that the code of silence was seemingly impenetrable."
Jim Letten, the United States attorney for the Eastern District, called the plea deals "not only appropriate but necessary" for a successful prosecution.
The five former officers were convicted in August on a range of counts including federal civil rights violations and lying to investigators. The account of their actions given at the trial was a grim one.
On Sept 4, 2005, as much of the city still lay submerged in floodwaters, Sgt. Kenneth Bowen and Sgt. Robert Gisevius and Officers Anthony Villavaso and Robert Faulcon jumped in a Budget rental truck with several other officers and raced to the Danziger Bridge in eastern New Orleans, responding to a distress call.
As soon as they arrived, witnesses at the trial said, the officers began firing on members of the Bartholomew family, who were trying to find a grocery store. A 17-year-old named James Brisette, a family friend, was killed and four others were gravely wounded.
The police then began to chase Lance Madison and his brother Ronald, who was 40 years old and mentally disabled, who were trying to get to the other side of the bridge. Ronald Madison was shot in the back by Officer Faulcon and then stomped on by Sergeant Bowen, and Lance Madison was arrested at the scene and accused of shooting at the police. He was later cleared by a grand jury.
The four who were convicted of taking part in the shooting came into the hearing on Wednesday facing sentences of at least 35 years because of mandatory sentencing guidelines; Mr. Faulcon was facing at least 65 years. All could have been sentenced to life in prison. As it was, Mr. Bowen and Mr. Gisevius were sentenced to 40 years, Mr. Villavaso to 38 years and Mr. Faulcon to 65 years.
A cover-up began immediately after the shooting, and eventually grew to include made-up witnesses and a planted handgun. A retired sergeant, Arthur Kaufman, a veteran investigator, was charged with administering much of the cover-up, and while he came into court Wednesday without a mandatory minimum, he was facing up to 120 years in prison. He was sentenced to six years.
Jordan Flaherty contributed reporting.
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8) Plan to Let Poultry Plants Inspect Birds Is Criticized
By RON NIXON
April 4, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/us/usda-poultry-inspection-plan-sets-off-dispute.html?ref=us
WASHINGTON - Federal food safety inspectors said a proposal by the Agriculture Department to expand a pilot program that allows private companies to take over the inspections at poultry plants could pose a health risk by allowing contaminated meat to reach customers.
Currently, the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors are stationed along the assembly lines in poultry plants and examine the birds for blemishes, feces or visible defects before they are processed.
Under the planned expansion, the agency would hand over these duties to poultry plant employees, while the inspectors would spend more time evaluating the plant's bacteria-testing and other safety programs. The department has run the pilot program in 20 poultry plants since 1998.
But many of the agency's inspectors said the proposal puts consumers at risk for diseases like those caused by salmonella. About 1.2 million cases of food poisoning are caused by salmonella each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In affidavits given to the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit legal-assistance group for government whistle-blowers, several inspectors who work at plants where the pilot program is in place said the main problem is that they are removed from positions on the assembly line and put at the end of the line, which makes it impossible for them to spot diseased birds.
The inspectors, whose names were redacted, said they had observed numerous instances of poultry plant employees allowing birds contaminated with fecal matter or other substances to pass. And even when the employees try to remove diseased birds, they face reprimands, the inspectors said.
The inspectors also said the Agriculture Department proposal allows poultry plants to speed up their assembly lines to about 200 birds per minute from 140, hampering any effort to examine birds for defects.
"It's tough enough when you are trying to examine 140 birds per minute with professional inspectors," said Stan Painter, a federal inspector in Crossville, Ala., a small town near Huntsville. "This proposal makes it impossible."
Mr. Painter works at a plant in the pilot program.
The Agriculture Department says it is simply trying to modernize an outdated poultry inspection system.
"This system is the same inspection model we've had since the Eisenhower administration," said Alfred V. Almanza, the administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service.
The agency said the new inspection model would prevent more than 5,200 poultry-related illnesses each year, though it did not say how. The agency said that over a three-year period this change would save $90 million through the elimination of more than 800 inspector positions.
Mr. Almanza, a former inspector himself, said he felt comfortable giving inspection duties to plant employees.
"The poultry industry has made great strides in the past few years in making birds pretty uniform, so it's easier to spot defective birds now," Mr. Almanza said.
The poultry industry applauded the Agriculture Department decision.
"The proposed rule is the logical next step in the modernization of poultry inspection," said Tom Super, vice president of communications for the National Chicken Council in Washington.
But some agriculture inspectors and advocacy groups see it differently.
Food and Water Watch, an advocacy group in Washington, which obtained more than 5,000 U.S.D.A. documents under the Freedom of Information Act last year, found that companies operating under the pilot program were missing defective poultry at high rates, said Tony Corbo, a lobbyist with the group.
Mr. Corbo said the group did not compare the rates with poultry plants not in the pilot program. However, the Agriculture Department said it did compare the two inspection systems and did not find a difference.
Mr. Almanza, the inspection administrator, said, "We find that plants in the pilot program were just as good or better than those that aren't in finding contamination."
But at least one member of Congress wants more information before the program is expanded. Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, has asked the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to review the Agriculture Department's proposal.
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9) Graphic: The Billionaires' Club
By BEN PROTESS
[Graphic at link ...bw]
April 5, 2012, 1:06 pm
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/graphic-the-billionaires-club/?src=busln
Regardless of who wins the 2012 presidential election, billionaires will come out on top.
This campaign cycle, the richest Americans, a disparate group that crosses party lines and spans political beliefs, are using their wealth to support a wide cast of presidential contenders. Their growing influence has coincided with the rise of the so-called super PACs, fund-raising efforts that are aligned with specific candidates but shielded from the traditional donation limits.
Now, billionaires are doling out millions. Sheldon Adelson, owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino, has almost single-handedly kept Newt Gingrich's campaign afloat. The hedge fund magnates Julian Robertson of Tiger Management, John Paulson of Paulson & Company and Paul Singer of Elliott Associates are among the top supporters of Mitt Romney. The academy award-winning director Steven Spielberg is backing President Obama's re-election campaign.
As billionaires wade deeper into elections, their influence in Washington - and globally - is growing.
Warren E. Buffett, the head of Berkshire Hathaway and a loyal Democrat, has been a vocal advocate for higher taxes for the rich. The industrialists Charles and David Koch, staunch supporters of libertarian and conservative causes, host a private seminar that draws other conservative billionaires.
Despite their various beliefs, politically minded billionaires aren't all that different in their daily lives, connected through a wide range of charitable causes, financial activities and extracurricular activities.
The Hamptons are home, or rather second home, to many of the nation's moneyed elite, including Mr. Spielberg, the activist investor Carl Icahn and Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York. New York City cultural venues have reaped the benefits of having wealthy neighbors. Lincoln Center, for instance, has recruited donors and board members like Mr. Bloomberg, David Koch and Mr. Soros's sister-in-law, Daisy Soros. And when on their home turf - or on one of several vacation properties - many billionaires share one common passion: golf.
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10) Playing the Violence Card
By KHALIL GIBRAN MUHAMMAD
April 5, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/opinion/playing-the-violence-card.html?hp
EVER since the culture wars of the 1980s, Americans have been familiar with "the race card" - an epithet used to discredit real and imagined cries of racism. Less familiar, however, is an equally cynical rhetorical tactic that I call "the violence card."
Here's how it works. When confronted with an instance of racially charged violence against a black person, a commentator draws attention to the fact that there is much more black-on-black violence than white-on-black violence. To play the violence card - as many criminal-justice advocates have done since the Rodney King police brutality case of the early 1990s - is to suggest that black people should worry more about the harm they do to themselves and less about how victimized they are by others.
The national outrage over the Trayvon Martin case has prompted some recent examples. Last week, the journalist Juan Williams wrote in The Wall Street Journal of the "tragedy" of Trayvon's death but wondered "what about all the other young black murder victims? Nationally, nearly half of all murder victims are black. And the overwhelming majority of those black people are killed by other black people." During a debate about the case on Sunday on an ABC News program, the commentator George F. Will argued that the "root fact" is that "about 150 black men are killed every week in this country - and 94 percent of them by other black men."
For Mr. Williams, Mr. Will and countless others playing the violence card, the real issue has little to do with racist fears or police practices - even though those would seem to be the very issues at hand.
It's true that black-on-black violence is an exceptionally grave problem. But this does not explain the allure of the violence card, which perpetuates the reassuring notion that violence against black people is not society's concern but rather a problem for black people to fix on their own. The implication is that the violence that afflicts black America reflects a failure of lower-class black culture, a breakdown of personal responsibility, a pathological trait of a criminally inclined subgroup - not a problem with social and institutional roots that needs to be addressed through collective effort well beyond the boundaries of black communities.
But perhaps the large scale of black-on-black violence justifies playing the violence card? Not if you recall how Americans responded to high levels of white-on-white violence in the past.
Consider the crime waves of 1890 to 1930, when millions of poor European immigrants came to America only to be trapped in inner-city slums, suffering the effects of severe economic inequality and social marginalization. Around the turn of the century, the Harvard economist William Ripley described the national scene: "The horde now descending upon our shores is densely ignorant, yet dull and superstitious withal; lawless, with a disposition to criminality." But the solution, Ripley argued, was not stigma, isolation and the promotion of fear. "They are fellow passengers on our ship of state," he wrote, "and the health of the nation depends upon the preservation of the vitality of the lower classes."
As a spokesman for saving white immigrant communities from the violence within, Ripley was part of a national progressive movement led by Jane Addams, the influential social worker of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the face of grisly, gang-related youth shootings - "duplicated almost every morning," Addams wrote - she insisted that everyone from the elite to community organizers to police officers had a part to play.
She and other progressives mobilized institutional resources to save killers and the future victims of killers. Violent white neighborhoods were flooded with social workers, police reformers and labor activists committed to creating better jobs and building a social welfare net. White-on-white violence fell slowly but steadily in proportion to economic development and crime prevention.
In almost every way the opposite situation applied to black Americans. Instead of provoking a steady dose of compassionate progressivism, crime and violence in black communities fueled the racist belief that, as numerous contemporaries stated, blacks were their "own worst enemies" - an early version of the violence card. Black people were "criminalized" through various institutions and practices, whether Southern chain gangs, prison farms, convict lease camps and lynching bees or Northern anti-black neighborhood violence and race riots.
Racial criminalization has continued to this day, stigmatizing black people as dangerous, legitimizing or excusing white-on-black violence, conflating crime and poverty with blackness, and perpetuating punitive notions of "justice" - vigilante violence, stop-and-frisk racial profiling and mass incarceration - as the only legitimate responses.
But the past does not have to be the future. The violence card is a cynical ploy that will only contribute to more fear, more black alienation and more violence. Rejecting its skewed logic and embracing a compassionate progressive solution for black crime is our best hope for saving lives and ensuring that young men like Trayvon Martin do not die in vain.
Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library, is the author of "The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America."
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11) Pensioner's Suicide Continues to Shake Greece
By NIKI KITSANTONIS
April 5, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/world/europe/pensioners-suicide-continues-to-shake-greece.html?ref=world
ATHENS - The death of a 77-year-old Greek pensioner who shot himself in the head outside Parliament in despair over his financial problems has shaken this austerity-weary country and a crumbling political system struggling to assert its relevance amid an economic and social meltdown.
Dimitris Christoulas, a divorced and retired pharmacist, took his life on Wednesday in Syntagma Square, a focal point for frequent public demonstrations and protests, as hundreds of commuters passed nearby at a metro station and as lawmakers in Parliament debated last-minute budget amendments before elections, expected on May 6.
In a handwritten note found near the scene, the pensioner said he could not face the prospect "of scavenging through garbage bins for food and becoming a burden to my child," blaming the government's austerity policies for his decision.
The incident has prompted a public outpouring, with passers-by pinning notes of sympathy and protest to trees in the square, as well as comment from politicians across the spectrum. A solidarity rally on Wednesday night turned violent when the police clashed with hooded demonstrators in scuffles that left at least three people injured.
On Thursday, before the start of another rally, shocked Athenians visited the site of the shooting. Some expressed sadness at the desperation of a fellow citizen, but also anger.
"It's not just heart-wrenching, it's outrageous," said Haris Anastasiadis, a 48-year-old plumber, pointing to the Parliament building. "It's those in there that killed him, and they're killing us all."
The sentiment echoed many of the notes pinned to the tree, which Mr. Christoulas leaned against before he pulled the trigger, according to witnesses. "This is not suicide, it is political murder," one note said. "Enough is enough," read another. "Austerity kills," declared yet another.
The suicide also prompted comments from politicians, who face growing public anger and have been pelted with yogurt cartons and fruit during public appearances. In a written statement released on Wednesday, Prime Minister Lucas D. Papademos said: "In these difficult times for our country we must all - the state and its citizens - support those next to us who are in despair."
Other political leaders sought to empathize with the desperate pensioner. "Death isn't just to die; it's also to live in despair, without hope," said the leader of conservative New Democracy party, Antonis Samaras, whose party is leading in opinion polls.
The leader of the socialist Pasok party, Evangelos Venizelos, described the incident as "so shocking that any political comment would be mistargeted and cheap."
Indeed, the political chorus did not sit well with the local news media. The main commentary of Thursday's edition of the center-right daily Kathimerini began: "If our political leaders had the slightest sense of responsibility, they would have kept their mouths shut."
According to local media, Mr. Christoulas, who sold his pharmacy in 1994, suffered serious health problems and had struggled to pay for medicines.
Neighbors told Greek television that they were not aware of his financial problems and that he appeared to be a generally cheerful person, though angry with the government. One neighbor said Mr. Christoulas frequently attended protest rallies in the square where he killed himself.
"A group of us used to go to Syntagma in the summer," the woman told state television. "He didn't miss a rally. He was exasperated, like all of us."
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12) Japan: Plant Leaks Radioactive Water
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
April 5, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/world/asia/japan-plant-leaks-radioactive-water.html?ref=world
The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant says tons of highly radioactive water appear to have leaked into the ocean from a purification unit. The Tokyo Electric Power Company is struggling to keep the melted reactors cool and contain radiation; the leak raises concerns about its ability to keep the plant stable. Similar leaks have occurred several times since last year, and officials say they do not pose an immediate health threat. Workers spotted the leak on Thursday coming from a section of hose on a device used to decontaminate cooling water leaking from reactors. The company said it appeared to have stopped the leak.
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13) Occupiers Hold a Slumber Party Near Union Square
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
April 6, 2012, 10:54 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/occupiers-hold-a-slumber-party-near-union-square/?ref=nyregion
More than two dozen Occupy Wall Street protesters, citing a ruling by a federal judge that they said gave them the right to sleep on sidewalks, held sleep-outs near bank branches at Union Square early Friday morning.
The horizontal protest occurred after the police cleared the protesters from the southern plaza of Union Square Park, in what has become a nightly operation in recent weeks.
At that point about 75 protesters, who had been using the park as an assembly spot, left. But unlike some previous nights they did not go far. They split up instead into two groups and moved to the banks, at times quoting from the 12-year-old ruling in which a judge held that it was lawful to sleep on sidewalks as a form of political protest.
"We are about to have a slumber party," announced an Occupy organizer, Austin Guest, as police officers dragged barricades into place at Union Square Park. "We have lots of cardboard."
Protesters handed out slips of paper that read "It is our First Amendment right to sleep on the street!" The papers briefly outlined the result of a court challenge to a ban on sleeping in public places that was brought in 2000 by the Metropolitan Council on Housing, an advocacy group that planned sleep-outs near Gracie Mansion to protest rent increases approved by the Rent Guidelines Board.
David Graeber, an anthropologist and anarchist who participated in meetings last summer that helped shape the Occupy movement, carried a large placard that bore part of the decision in the case, Metropolitan Council Inc. v. Safir.
In that decision, Judge Kimba M. Wood wrote, "the First Amendment of the United States Constitution does not allow the city to prevent an orderly political protest from using public sleeping as a means of symbolic expression."
Lauren DiGioia, one of those planning to sleep out, said that the idea arose as a reaction to the police, who have prevented protesters from sleeping in Union Square Park.
"As long as we don't block doors or take up more than half the sidewalk there is no disorderly conduct," she said.
Soon, the crowd split into two groups. Chanting "Let's go to sleep," one contingent paraded to a Bank of America branch at 14th Street and University Place. The second headed for a Citibank branch at 14th Street and Broadway. There, as the temperature hovered around 40 degrees, they spread out pieces of cardboard and wrapped themselves in Mylar blankets, sheets of foam and bright colored sleeping bags.
"Why Citibank?" said Rich Carollan, 23, who was reclining near Broadway. "Because they received a large portion of the bailout funds."
Police commanders visited both groups and issued orders to keep parts of the sidewalk clear. By 3 a.m., about 15 protesters slept in front of each bank and others milled nearby as officers across 14th Street stood guard inside Union Square Park. The police reported no arrests.
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14) In Lawsuits, Long Island Inmates Complain of Squalor
"Though many prisoners at the facilities are serving short sentences, a majority of them have not been convicted of a crime and were awaiting trial. ...The civil liberties union said inmates who made formal complaints or filed lawsuits over jail conditions were subjected to retaliation from correction officers. Mr. Porter said nothing was done about the complaints until the inmates decided to take their grievances to the courts. 'So they stepped up and filed the petitions,' he said. 'Jurisprudence is not that difficult once you get the hang of it.'"
By MOSI SECRET
April 5, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/06/nyregion/in-lawsuits-suffolk-county-inmates-complain-of-squalor.html?ref=nyregion
The inmates at Suffolk County Correctional Facilities told anyone who would listen that they were being forced to live in squalid conditions, with human waste bubbling up from the drains, brown water running from the tap and mold multiplying on the walls.
Saying that their complaints were ignored by jail officials, inmates accused of murder and robbery became jailhouse lawyers, banding together to file scores of handwritten lawsuits claiming that they were being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
First they sought help from the inmates who had the least to lose, those with long sentences. Soon low-level offenders were taking part. And in less than a year, a litigation campaign that was organized in whispers on the jailhouse yard, resulted in the filing of 69 separate handwritten lawsuits in Federal District Court in Central Islip, N.Y., eventually overwhelming the court.
"The courthouse called us," said Corey Stoughton, a lawyer for the New York Civil Liberties Union. "The court really wanted us to take this on."
The court official in charge of handling pro se lawsuits, which are filed by individuals without a lawyer, had turned to the civil liberties group to consolidate what had become an increasingly unwieldy case, Ms. Stoughton said.
On Thursday, the organization, along with the law firm Shearman & Sterling, filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of current and former inmates at two Suffolk County Correctional Facilities in Riverhead and Yaphank, at the eastern tip of Long Island.
Suffolk County and its sheriff, Vincent F. DeMarco, were named as defendants. The chief of staff at the sheriff's office, Michael P. Sharkey, said that he had not known about the suit until the civil liberties group issued a news release on Thursday afternoon, and that he had not had time to review the allegations. He said he was not aware of the many previous lawsuits.
The collective suit claims that flawed plumbing at Riverhead causes waste from one toilet to gush out of the toilet in an adjoining cell, an occurrence the inmates call "Ping-Pong toilets." In addition, the suit said that showers and air vents were coated with black mold, and that rodents ran rampant throughout the jail.
Though many prisoners at the facilities are serving short sentences, a majority of them have not been convicted of a crime and were awaiting trial.
Pro se litigation by inmates, often claiming mistreatment by the criminal justice system, is as common nationally as jury duty at any federal courthouse, but rarely does it come in such volume as to arouse attention or force action.
"To be honest, I was ecstatic," said Jason Porter, a former inmate of Suffolk County jails who said he had been in out and of jails for about 14 years and was among those who filed a lawsuit.
"Regardless of what their crimes were, they are being treated like animals, and it's not good."
Louis E. Mazzola, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County, which regularly represents inmates at the jails, said he had not heard about problems at the jail. But he said the claims sounded similar to a class-action suit over conditions at the jail in the 1980s.
The civil liberties union said inmates who made formal complaints or filed lawsuits over jail conditions were subjected to retaliation from correction officers.
Mr. Porter said nothing was done about the complaints until the inmates decided to take their grievances to the courts.
"So they stepped up and filed the petitions," he said.
"Jurisprudence is not that difficult once you get the hang of it."
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15) Anti-War Conference Against "Humanitarian Imperialism"
Glen Ford: Americans should oppose US military interventions everywhere
April 8, 2012
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8149
Bio
Glen Ford is a distinguished radio-show host and commentator. In 1977, Ford co-launched, produced and hosted America's Black Forum, the first nationally syndicated Black news interview program on commercial television. In 1987, Ford launched Rap It Up, the first nationally syndicated Hip Hop music show, broadcast on 65 radio stations. Ford co-founded the Black Commentator in 2002 and in 2006 he launched the Black Agenda Report. Ford is also the author of The Big Lie: An Analysis of U.S. Media Coverage of the Grenada Invasion.
Transcript
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR, TRNN: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Washington.
Last weekend in Stamford, Connecticut, was the meeting of the United National Antiwar Coalition. And now joining us to talk about that meeting is Glen Ford. He is the executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com. Thanks for joining us again, Glen.
GLEN FORD, EXEC. EDITOR, BLACKAGENDAREPORT.COM: Thanks for the opportunity.
JAY: So what were the headlines from this conference? And maybe for people that don't know, you can give a little context about UNAC, why there is a UNAC.
FORD: UNAC is now the premier antiwar organization in the United States. What used to comprise the antiwar movement (if it could be called that) in the U.S. showed itself with the advent of the first black president to be really an anti-Republican movement. And so the antiwar forces had to reconstitute themselves into an organization that opposed all U.S. aggressive force and not just Republican wars, and that became the United National Antiwar Coalition, or UNAC.
This past weekend's conference was, I think, very, very significant because UNAC adopted the position that the United States—calling on the United States not to intervene, to attack, to threaten, to coerce, to put sanctions or embargoes against both Iran and Syria. And we have to understand that what called itself the antiwar movement was quite ambivalent about the unprovoked U.S.-NATO war against Libya last year. And those same forces appear to be even more ambivalent about the pending attack against Syria and against Iran. So it was important that UNAC again, being true to its purpose, come down against U.S. aggressions in all their forms and not just when Republicans do them.
JAY: Well, I guess, before we talk about Libya and Syria, the war that's now being called Obama's war is the Afghan War. I assume you took a position on that.
FORD: Oh, of course. U.S. out of Afghanistan. U.S. out of Pakistan. U.S.—a halt to the U.S. war which has been going on for—oh, since late 2006 against Somalia. A halt to the militarization of Africa through AFRICOM's aggressive activities there. A halt to the continued occupation of Haiti. We could go on and on and use up all of your time.
JAY: Especially if we get into any history—we would have no time at all for that. Talk a bit about the politics of this. You talked about how the antiwar movement, once there was a Democratic president, lost much of its steam, and when the antiwar movement wasn't just targeting wars that—started by Republicans. To what extent does UNAC cross party lines? For example, there are libertarian Republicans, Ron Paul supporters and others, that would probably agree with you on a lot of this. Do you—are they represented in the UNAC?
FORD: I haven't seen much trace of Tea Party types or libertarian types in UNAC, and probably it's because even that strain of libertarianism that opposes U.S. wars abroad can't use the word imperialism. And if you don't understand that it is a system that is constantly seeking wars, seeking conflicts with other people with purpose of taking over their resources or giving getting rid of anything that stands in the way of U.S. domination of the world, then you're not really coherent in terms of your antiwar policy.
JAY: Actually, Ron Paul does use the term imperialism and empire. I don't know that he analyzes it the same way you might, but he does use the terms, to be fair.
FORD: Yeah. Well, certainly a lot of them use the term empire, but not imperialism, and one is not necessarily the same thing.
JAY: Okay. Well, let's talk about Syria, 'cause that's probably a good example of what's being called humanitarian intervention, or others are calling humanitarian imperialism, where you have a very complicated situation. To the best of what I can assess of what's going on there, you have, you know, oppositional forces that want to end a dictatorship. You have all kinds of forces being backed by external players like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United States. How do you parse this in terms of the rights of people to overthrow what they think is not a legitimate government, and the role outside intervention plays in fishing in troubled waters?
FORD: People have the right to overthrow their governments. The United States, of course, has not backed those people who have wanted to overthrow the governments that they had imposed or that they supported. So the United States doesn't back the principle of people having a right to overthrow their own governments.
But I don't think that that's what we're talking about here. We would not be talking about Syria and the crisis that now exists if there weren't massive, massive intervention by other powers. And they include not just the United States and France and Britain. We know that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Salafis from Libya there, the country that NATO made war against only last year. And we know that Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been giving material aid to the opposition in Syria, and that Turkey is maintaining on its border with Syria a safe haven for the so-called Free Syrian Army.
So the involvement of the so-called international community is no secret. It's quite public. And the call for regime change is something that comes out of Hillary Clinton's mouth in this instance just as it did with Libya. In fact, what the United States is trying to do is do a repeat of Libya with Syria.
And in the larger sense, what the Obama administration has done with its humanitarian military interventionist doctrine is to do an end run around international law, to make an exception to international law, which says you do not make war unless you are attacked, and even under those circumstances it is only as a last resort. Now you have a doctrine that says that some community of nations, that is, the United States and whatever partners it wants to enlist in the project, can decide that there is a higher calling, and that is to save designated civilians from attack by their own government. It basically is saying that a government does not have the right to a monopoly of the use of force within its own borders. And that means that the United States does not recognize the sovereignty of other countries that it declares to be behaving in a non-humanitarian way.
JAY: So, I mean, essentially transcends decades of international law is what you're saying.
FORD: Decades of international law and centuries of evolving standards of international conduct.
JAY: Now, you do have situations—for example, South Africa was an example where there was certainly armed opposition to the apartheid regime. There was a call by South African resistance fighters for international sanctions. Certainly there was no call for outside military intervention. What do you see is in terms of what the international role or countries from outside other countries like a South Africa? [sic] 'Cause it's not always going to be an anti-American regime that's—I mean, a regime that's in contradiction with U.S. imperialism that's going to be at issue here. What do you think is the proper way for these things to unfold?
FORD: Well, I think that the world considers the case of South Africa a case of white minority rule, a vestige of colonialism and white supremacy, to be a separate kind of case, that there is a consensus in the world that rule by racial right is beyond the kin, beyond the pale, and something to be abhorred by all the world's people. This is what puts Israel in a very precarious position of legitimacy as well. And so I don't think it's correct to use the South African example as one that is a way to get at some kind of universal principle. We have universal principles, and they're in the Geneva Conventions and the other elements of international law.
JAY: Well, I mean, it could be a Latin American country where people are waging an armed resistance against an American-backed dictatorship, for example. I mean, it wouldn't be a stretch to see that in today's world at some point Honduran resistance might become an armed resistance, given the level of armed repression of the Honduran resistance. What then do you think should be the role of outside countries?
FORD: You know, everybody has the right to give all kinds of moral support, and individuals to take their risks and give material support, to forces around the world with which they empathize. That means that Islamist forces can do so in those parts of the world where they want to establish Islamic regimes, and so on and so on.
The rights of people to support the forces around the world with which they feel solidarity is not what we're talking about. We're talking about nations that aggressively try to topple the regimes of other nations by using force, by transferring their arms to other people to be used against other nations. That's quite a different story. That's what the United States is doing. That's how those Libyans who had fought the NATO side in the war of last year now wind up in Syria and brag about it. That's U.S. intervention.
But, you know, we don't have to get into the details of how those arms and other material support arrive. All we have to do is listen to the words of the State Department. And this is clearly an orchestrated campaign for regime change backed up by the threat of the use of more force. And if China and Russia had not vetoed the resolution before the UN Security Council that looked very much like the resolution that was put forward to justify the no-fly zone and subsequent attack on Libya, then we would be looking at a Libyan type situation right now.
JAY: What are UNAC's plans? The people are talking about the new Occupy spring and a new wave of various kinds of protest. What has UNAC got in store?
FORD: Next month, UNAC's big project is to go to Chicago to protest NATO's meeting in Chicago. And there was going to be a simultaneous meeting of NATO and the G-8. But UNAC believes that all of the organizing activities, all the organizing to bring thousands of people to Chicago, scared the G-8 meeting to another location, to Camp David, I believe. And so they're counting that as a victory there.
The mayor of Chicago, however, is going to make it very, very difficult for demonstrators not to break the law in carrying out their protests. And we have to point out that the U.S. Congress just recently passed a bill that made it a federal felony, a really serious crime, to trespass against a building or a tract of land on which a person who is guarded by the Secret Service is positioned, is in the building or on the grounds, even if the demonstrators who trespass somehow don't know that this Secret Service-guarded person is there. And that could be a presidential candidate, it could be a number of government officials, but it could also be a foreign dignitary. Clearly, that law was passed with only three votes against it. One of them was Ron Paul. Clearly that was meant to create the biggest kind of chill against demonstrations like that which UNAC and a whole coalition of other organizations is planning in Chicago next month.
JAY: Yeah. That legislation's very similar to legislation that was used during the G-20 in Toronto, something called the Public Works Protection Act, which even the ombudsman of Ontario later called not only the greatest threat to civil rights in the history of Canada, but he essentially called it a declaration of martial law. This is very similar, that you can essentially, if the—I mean, under this legislation, call a surrounding area where the person of note is—under this legislation is there, essentially creates a martial law.
FORD: A zone in which martial law exists. And the preventive detention law—and this is an historic achievement of the Obama administration that I don't think any Republican administration could have pulled off—this preventive detention law, which basically outlaws due process no matter what the U.S. attorney general says—.
JAY: You're talking the law under the NDAA,—
FORD: Yes, yes.
JAY: —which allows for an indefinite military detention of—including U.S. citizens.
FORD: And, you know, I don't know why the distinction is made between military and civil. The outlaw—withdrawal of due process is the same whether it's under military or civilian, and that means that you don't have the rule of law in this country. It is a role or a law by decree.
And why are we seeing these kinds of measures? I believe—I'm not speaking for UNAC; I'm on the coordinating Council, but I don't speak for UNAC. But I believe, and many in UNAC believe, that the United States is on a kind of go-for-broke military campaign, a real offensive, as big an offensive as George Bush tried to pull off with his attack on Iraq in 2003, an offensive that was blunted by the opposition in Iraq. And now Obama is on a roll with his humanitarian aggressions. And it's understood that as the theaters of war widen and protest becomes deeper and wider, that there's going to be a need to crack down domestically. And they've already laid the legal foundations for that.
JAY: Thanks for joining us, Glen.
FORD: Thank you.
JAY: Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.
End
DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for The Real News Network are typed from a recording of the program. TRNN cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
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16) Welfare Limits Left Poor Adrift as Recession Hit
By JASON DePARLE
April 7, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/us/welfare-limits-left-poor-adrift-as-recession-hit.html?_r=1&hp
PHOENIX — Perhaps no law in the past generation has drawn more praise than the drive to “end welfare as we know it,” which joined the late-’90s economic boom to send caseloads plunging, employment rates rising and officials of both parties hailing the virtues of tough love.
But the distress of the last four years has added a cautionary postscript: much as overlooked critics of the restrictions once warned, a program that built its reputation when times were good offered little help when jobs disappeared. Despite the worst economy in decades, the cash welfare rolls have barely budged.
Faced with flat federal financing and rising need, Arizona is one of 16 states that have cut their welfare caseloads further since the start of the recession — in its case, by half. Even as it turned away the needy, Arizona spent most of its federal welfare dollars on other programs, using permissive rules to plug state budget gaps.
The poor people who were dropped from cash assistance here, mostly single mothers, talk with surprising openness about the desperate, and sometimes illegal, ways they make ends meet. They have sold food stamps, sold blood, skipped meals, shoplifted, doubled up with friends, scavenged trash bins for bottles and cans and returned to relationships with violent partners — all with children in tow.
Esmeralda Murillo, a 21-year-old mother of two, lost her welfare check, landed in a shelter and then returned to a boyfriend whose violent temper had driven her away. “You don’t know who to turn to,” she said.
Maria Thomas, 29, with four daughters, helps friends sell piles of brand-name clothes, taking pains not to ask if they are stolen. “I don’t know where they come from,” she said. “I’m just helping get rid of them.”
To keep her lights on, Rosa Pena, 24, sold the groceries she bought with food stamps and then kept her children fed with school lunches and help from neighbors. Her post-welfare credo is widely shared: “I’ll do what I have to do.”
Critics of the stringent system say stories like these vindicate warnings they made in 1996 when President Bill Clinton fulfilled his pledge to “end welfare as we know it”: the revamped law encourages states to withhold aid, especially when the economy turns bad.
The old program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, dates from the New Deal; it gave states unlimited matching funds and offered poor families extensive rights, with few requirements and no time limits. The new program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, created time limits and work rules, capped federal spending and allowed states to turn poor families away.
“My take on it was the states would push people off and not let them back on, and that’s just what they did,” said Peter B. Edelman, a law professor at Georgetown University who resigned from the Clinton administration to protest the law. “It’s been even worse than I thought it would be.”
But supporters of the current system often say lower caseloads are evidence of decreased dependency. Many leading Republicans are pushing for similar changes to much larger programs, like Medicaid and food stamps.
Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the top House Republican on budget issues, calls the current welfare program “an unprecedented success.” Mitt Romney, who leads the race for the Republican presidential nomination, has said he would place similar restrictions on “all these federal programs.” One of his rivals, Rick Santorum, calls the welfare law a source of spiritual rejuvenation.
“It didn’t just cut the rolls, but it saved lives,” Mr. Santorum said, giving the poor “something dependency doesn’t give: hope.”
President Obama spoke favorably of the program in his 2008 campaign — promoting his role as a state legislator in cutting the Illinois welfare rolls. But he has said little about it as president.
Even in the 1996 program’s early days, when jobs were plentiful, a subset of families appeared disconnected — left with neither welfare nor work. Their numbers were growing before the recession and seem to have surged since then.
No Money, No Job
While data on the very poor is limited and subject to challenge, recent studies have found that as many as one in every four low-income single mothers are jobless and without cash aid — roughly four million women and children. Many of the mothers have problems like addiction or depression, which can make assisting them politically unpopular, and they have received little attention in a downturn that has produced an outpouring of concern for the middle class.
Poor families can turn to other programs, like food stamps or Medicaid, or rely on family and charity. But the absence of a steady source of cash, however modest, can bring new instability to troubled lives.
One prominent supporter of the tough welfare law is worried that it may have increased destitution among the most disadvantaged families. “This is the biggest problem with welfare reform, and we ought to be paying attention to it,” said Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution, who helped draft the 1996 law as an aide to House Republicans and argues that it has worked well for most recipients.
“The issue here is, can you create a strong work program, as we did, without creating a big problem at the bottom?” Mr. Haskins said. “And we have what appears to be a big problem at the bottom.”
He added, “This is what really bothers me: the people who supported welfare reform, they’re ignoring the problem.”
The welfare program was born amid apocalyptic warnings and was instantly proclaimed a success, at times with a measure of “I told you so” glee from its supporters. Liberal critics had warned that its mix of time limits and work rules would create mass destitution — “children sleeping on the grates,” in the words of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a New York Democrat who died in 2003.
But the economy boomed, employment soared, poverty fell and caseloads plunged. Thirty-two states reduced their caseloads by two-thirds or more, as officials issued press releases and jostled for bragging rights. The tough law played a large role, but so did expansions of child care and tax credits that raised take-home pay.
In a twist on poverty politics, poor single mothers, previously chided as “welfare queens,” were celebrated as working-class heroes, with their stories of leaving the welfare rolls cast as uplifting tales of pluck. Flush with federal money, states experimented with programs that offered counseling, clothes and used cars.
But if the rise in employment was larger than predicted, it was also less transformative than it may have seemed. Researchers found that most families that escaped poverty remained “near poor.”
And despite widespread hopes that working mothers might serve as role models, studies found few social or educational benefits for their children. (They measured things like children’s aspirations, self-esteem, grades, drug use and arrests.) Nonmarital births continued to rise.
But the image of success formed early and stayed frozen in time.
“The debate is over,” President Clinton said a year after signing the law, which he often cites in casting himself as a centrist. “Welfare reform works.”
The recession that began in 2007 posed a new test to that claim. Even with $5 billion in new federal funds, caseloads rose just 15 percent from the lowest level in two generations. Compared with the 1990s peak, the national welfare rolls are still down by 68 percent. Just one in five poor children now receives cash aid, the lowest level in nearly 50 years.
As the downturn wreaked havoc on budgets, some states took new steps to keep the needy away. They shortened time limits, tightened eligibility rules and reduced benefits (to an average of about $350 a month for a family of three).
Since 2007, 11 states have cut the rolls by 10 percent or more. They include centers of unemployment like Georgia, Indiana and Rhode Island, as well as Michigan, where the welfare director justified cuts by telling legislators, “We have a fair number of people gaming the system.” Arizona cut benefits by 20 percent and shortened time limits twice — to two years, from five.
Many people already found the underlying system more hassle than help, a gantlet of job-search classes where absences can be punished by a complete loss of aid. Some states explicitly pursue a policy of deterrence to make sure people use the program only as a last resort.
Since the states get fixed federal grants, any caseload growth comes at their own expense. By contrast, the federal government pays the entire food stamp bill no matter how many people enroll; states encourage applications, and the rolls have reached record highs.
Among the Arizonans who lost their checks was Tamika Shelby, who first sought cash aid at 29 after fast-food jobs and a stint as a waitress in a Phoenix strip club. The state gave her $176 a month and sent her to work part time at a food bank. Though she was effectively working for $2 an hour, she scarcely missed a day in more than a year.
“I loved it,” she said.
Her supervisor, Michael Cox, said Ms. Shelby “was just wonderful” and “would even come up here on her days off.”
Then the reduced time limit left Ms. Shelby with neither welfare nor work. She still gets about $250 a month in food stamps for herself and her 3-year-old son, Dejon. She counts herself fortunate, she said, because a male friend lets her stay in a spare room, with no expectations of sex. Still, after feeding her roommate and her child, she said, “there are plenty of days I don’t eat.”
“I know there are some people who abuse the system,” Ms. Shelby said. “But I was willing to do anything they asked me to. If I could, I’d still be working for those two dollars an hour.”
Diverting Federal Funds
Clarence H. Carter, Arizona’s director of economic security, says finances forced officials to cut the rolls. But the state gets the same base funding from the federal government, $200 million, that it received in the mid-1990s when caseloads were five times as high. (The law also requires it to spend $86 million in state funds.)
Arizona spends most of the federal money on other human services programs, especially foster care and adoption services, while using just one-third for cash benefits and work programs — the core purposes of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. If it did not use the federal welfare money, the state would have to finance more of those programs itself.
“Yes, we divert — divert’s a bad word,” said State Representative John Kavanagh, a Republican and chairman of the Arizona House Appropriations Committee. “It helps the state.”
While federal law allows such flexibility, critics say states neglect poor families to patch their own finances. Nationally, only 30 percent of the welfare money is spent on cash benefits.
“It’s not that the other stuff isn’t important, but it’s not what T.A.N.F.” — the Temporary Assistance program — “was intended for,” said LaDonna Pavetti of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research and advocacy group. “The states use the money to fill budget holes.”
Even in an economy as bad as Arizona’s, some recipients find work. Estefana Armas, a 30-year-old mother of three, spent nine years on the rolls, fighting depression so severe that it left her hospitalized. Once exempt from time limits because of her mental health, Ms. Armas joined support groups, earned a high school equivalency degree and enrolled in community college.
Just as her time expired last summer, Ms. Armas found work as a teacher’s aide at a church preschool.
“It kind of pushed me to get a job,” she said.
Supporters of Temporary Assistance cite stories like that to argue that it promotes a work ethic. Despite high unemployment, low-skilled single mothers work as much now, on average, as they did under the old welfare law — and by some measures, a bit more. As a group, their poverty rates are still lower. And those without cash aid, they say, can turn to other programs.
“We have reduced our caseload, and we don’t have people dying in the street,” Mr. Kavanagh said. “There were an awful lot of people who didn’t need it.”
But the number of very poor families appears to be growing. Pamela Loprest and Austin Nichols, researchers at the Urban Institute, found that one in four low-income single mothers nationwide — about 1.5 million — are jobless and without cash aid. That is twice the rate the researchers found under the old welfare law. More than 40 percent remain that way for more than a year, and many have mental or physical disabilities, sick children or problems with domestic violence.
Using a different definition of distress, Luke Shaefer of the University of Michigan and Kathryn Edin of Harvard examined the share of households with children in a given month living on less than $2 per person per day. It has nearly doubled since 1996, to almost 4 percent. Even when counting food stamps as cash, they found one of every 50 children live in such a household.
The Census Bureau uses a third measure, “deep poverty,” which it defines as living on less than half of the amount needed to escape poverty (for a family of three, that means living on less than $9,000 a year). About 10 percent of households headed by women report incomes that low, a bit less than the peak under the old law but still the highest level in 18 years.
Some researchers say the studies exaggerate poverty by inadequately accounting for undisclosed income, like help from boyfriends or under-the-table jobs. They note that asking poor people about their consumption, rather than their income, suggests that even the poorest single mothers have improved their standard of living since 1996.
Mr. Haskins, the Temporary Assistance program’s architect, agrees that poverty at the bottom “is not as bad as it seems,” but adds, “It’s still pretty darn bad.”
Trying to Make Do
Asked how they survived without cash aid, virtually all of the women interviewed here said they had sold food stamps, getting 50 cents for every dollar of groceries they let others buy with their benefit cards. Many turned to food banks and churches. Nationally, roughly a quarter have subsidized housing, with rents as low as $50 a month.
Several women said the loss of aid had left them more dependent on troubled boyfriends. One woman said she sold her child’s Social Security number so a relative could collect a tax credit worth $3,000.
“I tried to sell blood, but they told me I was anemic,” she said.
Several women acknowledged that they had resorted to shoplifting, including one who took orders for brand-name clothes and sold them for half-price. Asked how she got cash, one woman said flatly, “We rob wetbacks” — illegal immigrants, who tend to carry cash and avoid the police. At least nine times, she said, she has flirted with men and led them toward her home, where accomplices robbed them.
“I felt bad afterwards,” she said. But she added, “There were times when we didn’t have nothing to eat.”
One family ruled out crime and rummaged through trash cans instead. The mother, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, could not get aid for herself but received $164 a month for her four American-born children until their time limit expired. Distraught at losing her only steady source of cash, she asked the children if they would be ashamed to help her collect discarded cans.
“I told her I would be embarrassed to steal from someone — not to pick up cans,” her teenage daughter said.
Weekly park patrols ensued, and recycling money replaced about half of the welfare check.
Despite having a father in prison and a mother who could be deported, the children exude earnest cheer. A daughter in the fifth grade won a contest at school for reading the most books. A son in the eighth grade is a student leader praised by his principal for tutoring younger students, using supplies he pays for himself.
“That’s just the kind of character he has,” the principal said.
After losing cash aid, the mother found a cleaning job but lost it when her boss discovered that she was in the United States illegally. The family still gets subsidized housing and $650 a month in food stamps.
The boy worries about homelessness, but his younger sisters, 9 and 10, see an upside in scavenging.
“It’s kind of fun because you get to look through the trash,” one of the girls said.
“And you get to play in the park a little while before you go home,” her sister agreed.
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17) In Executive Pay, a Rich Game of Thrones
By NATASHA SINGER
April 7, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/business/in-chief-executives-pay-a-rich-game-of-thrones.html?ref=business
IS any C.E.O. worth $1 million a day?
That’s roughly $42,000 an hour. Or $700 a minute. Or $12 a second.
Think of it this way: In the time it took to read those words, you could’ve pocketed $100. Finish this article and — well, you do the math.
At Apple, the answer to that question is an emphatic yes, and then some. Not since Steve Jobs has a chief executive at Apple, or any other public American corporation, for that matter, been as richly rewarded in stock as Timothy D. Cook, who succeeded Mr. Jobs as chief executive last August, a few months before Mr. Jobs died.
Mr. Cook was paid a cash salary of roughly $900,000 in 2011. On its own, that would have been a ho-hum paycheck for a top American C.E.O. in recent years.
But then came a wild extra, a one-time award, in the form of Apple stock. It was initially worth a staggering $376.2 million. As of the end of last week, it was valued at roughly $634 million, reflecting Apple’s soaring share price.
Many credit Mr. Cook, along with Mr. Jobs, for Apple’s recent success. And the company is quick to note that Mr. Cook’s pay package extends over 10 years. One-half of his stock is scheduled to vest in 2016, and the other in 2021, provided that Mr. Cook still works for Apple. And, at a time when some investors seethe over far smaller paychecks — a mere eight figures is relatively commonplace for top chief executives these days — Apple’s shareholders are hardly up in arms over the magnitude of Mr. Cook’s reward. To the contrary, a vast majority voted in favor of it.
Of course, most of us can’t begin to wrap our heads around pay figures like these. An American with a bachelor’s degree, after all, typically makes $2.3 million, not in a year, but over a lifetime, according to a recent study from Georgetown University.
Data on C.E.O. compensation in 2011, albeit preliminary, confirm what many of us already know: the top brass generally do much, much better than the rest of us, whether times are good or bad. After the ups and downs of the recent boom-bust years, pay among the 100 best-paid chief executives at big American corporations held fairly steady in 2011, according to Equilar, which reviewed C.E.O. compensation for The New York Times. Here are some numbers worth knowing:
• Among the 100 top-paid C.E.O.s, overall pay last year rose a scant 2 percent from 2010.
• The median chief executive in this group took home $14.4 million — compared with the average annual American salary of $45,230.
• In all, the combined compensation of these 100 C.E.O.s totaled $2.1 billion, the rough equivalent of the estimated annual economic output of Sierra Leone.
The full picture won’t become clear until June or so, when corporate proxy statements will detail the full range of executive compensation. But data available as of March 30 suggests that a new elite is emerging in corporate America: C.E.O.’s who make $10 million-plus a year.
Granted, these are chief executives of publicly traded companies, the kind of businesses anyone can buy into on the stock market. Next to pay in the rarefied realms of private American capitalism — the multitrillion-dollar world of hedge funds, private equity and the like — these C.E.O.’s might seem like pikers. Top hedge fund managers collectively earned $14.4 billion last year.
But the Equilar figures also hint at the myriad ways executive compensation is as tailored as a bespoke suit. It is those custom details — the one-off huge stock grants, in Mr. Cook’s case, the token $1 annual salaries or evaporating bonuses in others — that can turn dull proxy statements into page-turners.
Mr. Cook is an extreme example of this phenomenon. He is, experts agree, an outlier — the only chief executive on the Equilar list to pull down a nine-figure paycheck. His stock award was so valuable, even at its initial price, that his total compensation eclipsed that of the next nine C.E.O.’s combined. Those nine included Lawrence J. Ellison of Oracle, at $77.6 million, a perennial on the best-paid list, and Philippe P. Dauman, of Viacom, at $43.1 million.
Aaron Boyd, the director of research at Equilar, the executive compensation data firm based in Redwood City, Calif., that has reviewed executive compensation trends annually for Sunday Business, said Mr. Cook’s pay was unique.
“The amount he got was historic to such a degree that it skews the numbers,” Mr. Boyd said.
BUT Apple was not the only special case. Consider J. C. Penney, whose new chief executive, Ronald B. Johnson, came in third on the top 100 list, with total compensation of $53.3 million.
Why? Last year, Mr. Johnson left his position as senior vice president of retail at Apple, along with Apple stock worth $101 million at the time that had not yet vested. So, as part of his pay package, J.C. Penney gave Mr. Johnson a one-time stock award worth $52.6 million. (As of the end of last week, his Apple stock would have been worth about $159 million. His Penney stock was worth $58 million.)
Last year’s other top earners included Stephen I. Chazen ($31.7 million) of Occidental Petroleum; Gregory Q. Brown ($29.3 million) of Motorola Solutions, and Howard D. Schultz ($16.1 million) of Starbucks.
Analysts say the uptick in C.E.O. pay is a sign that corporations are returning to business as usual after the last recession. When the economy soured, executive pay fell sharply at many companies, though not as much as many ordinary Americans might have hoped. With the recovery in 2010, pay then skyrocketed. Now it’s stabilizing, suggesting, perhaps, that corporate boards see more predictable economic times ahead.
“On average, pay levels have moderated,” said Doug Friske, the global head of executive compensation consulting at Towers Watson, a human resource consulting firm in New York. “Now we are seeing normalization.”
Corporate boards also seem to be acknowledging criticism of executive pay from shareholders and the public. Some companies have reduced discretionary bonuses and linked executive pay more closely to performance metrics like revenue and share price. Last year, companies also began to hold shareholder votes on executive pay packages, so-called “say on pay” polls required by Dodd-Frank, the Wall Street reform law.
Corporate America hasn’t entirely embraced reform. Some companies and industry groups have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to jettison — or at least delay putting in place — a provision in the Dodd-Frank law that would require companies to disclose the ratio of C.E.O. pay to median employee pay, the kind of statistic that could grab headlines in this era of the 1 percent.
The 100 highest earners of 2011 have one thing in common, however. Although they could all rank among the 1 percent — households that bring in $380,000 or more — they actually belong in a more exclusive bracket: people with more than $10 million in pay.
But the C.E.O. wealth is hardly trickling down. During the 2010 recovery, the top 1 percent captured 93 percent of the income gains, while the incomes of the 99 percent essentially remained flat, according to a study by Emmanuel Saez, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
In 2011, the median weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary workers in the United States rose only about 1 percent, to $756, from $747 in 2010, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In constant dollars, wages fell a little more than 2 percent.
The C-suite and the shop floor have never been further apart, said Brandon Rees, the deputy director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. office of investment.
“American workers are having to make do with less,” Mr. Rees said, “while C.E.O.s have never had it better.”
Equilar analyzed base salaries, cash bonuses, perks, stock awards and options for the 100 most highly compensated executives at public companies that had revenue of more than $5 billion and had filed their proxy statements by March 30. (The study excluded severance pay, changes in pension values and stock awarded in previous years that vested in 2011.)
One standout on the list was Vikram S. Pandit, the chief executive of Citigroup. After the company was bailed out by taxpayers in 2009, Mr. Pandit pledged to work for $1 a year until the bank returned to profitability.
Citigroup has since repaid its bailout money, and the board has restored Mr. Pandit’s pay. It amounted to $14.9 million last year, putting Mr. Pandit in 45th place on Equilar’s list. Citigroup’s longtime shareholders are still waiting for their payday: while the company’s net income rose 3 percent last year, Equilar said; its share price fell 44 percent.
New “say on pay” votes, though nonbinding, have caused some companies to make a greater proportion of pay contingent on chief executives’ achievement of rigorous performance goals. Some companies have even eliminated stock option awards — the grants of stock that executives are able to buy at a fixed price — in favor of full-value stock awards that vest only if executives meet specified goals, said Carol Bowie, head of Americas research at Institutional Shareholder Services, a proxy consulting firm for institutional investors.
“We are definitely seeing a trend toward more performance-based pay,” Ms. Bowie said. “It remains to be seen if performance follows.”
At Hewlett-Packard, for instance, shareholders voted in March 2011 to reject the company’s executive compensation plan. The board eventually responded to criticism over the company’s multimillion-dollar executive severance packages. The departure last year of Léo Apotheker, who had served as C.E.O. for 11 months, for example, cost H.P. shareholders about $30 million, according to a report from I.S.S.
When H.P.’s board subsequently chose Meg Whitman as the new C.E.O., it took some steps to mollify shareholders by giving her a performance-based compensation package. The board offered her a base salary of $1, no cash bonus, no stock awards and a grant of options to purchase 1.9 million shares of H.P. stock.
Although that amounted to compensation of about $16.5 million, ranking Ms. Whitman 35th on the Equilar list, she will have to meet certain conditions for all of the stock to vest. If she remains employed at H.P., she can exercise her option to buy 100,000 shares each year for the next three years. In addition, 800,000 shares will vest if H.P.’s share price increases by 20 percent under her stewardship, and another 800,000 will vest if the stock increases by 40 percent.
THE rest of the top earners list reads like an A-list of corporate titans, from Robert A. Iger of Walt Disney, ranked seventh, with pay of $31.4 million, to William C. Weldon of Johnson & Johnson, ranked 13th, with $23.4 million. (Mr. Weldon plans to step down as chief later this month; he will stay on as chairman.)
Rupert Murdoch of the News Corporation took 10th place, with compensation of $29.4 million — a 75 percent increase from 2010. In a year when the News Corporation and Mr. Murdoch’s son James were embroiled in a scandal over phone hacking, the elder Mr. Murdoch earned a cash bonus of $12.5 million. That is because the company did well financially, analysts said, even if its reputation plummeted.
“Financially, they exceeded their target,” said Mr. Boyd of Equilar. “But from a publicity standpoint, News Corporation has taken a hit over the last year and a half.”
Also among the top 10, David M. Cote, the chief executive of Honeywell, received total compensation of $35.3 million, putting him in fifth place. Honeywell tends to dole out a huge bonus every other year. Last year, Mr. Cote’s bonus was $23.3 million.
Clarence P. Cazalot Jr., the chief executive of Marathon Oil, received $29.9 million, an increase of 239 percent from the previous year. That put him in eighth place. Mr. Cazalot received a cash bonus of $21.8 million, the second-highest cash bonus, a majority of which came from accelerated payouts for spinning off a company unit, the Marathon Petroleum Corporation.
Next, Alan R. Mulally, who helped turn around Ford, took ninth place, with compensation of $29.5 million. Although Ford’s share price fell nearly 36 percent last year, its net income increased 208 percent.
Elsewhere, Fabrizio Freda, the chief executive of the Estée Lauder Companies, made a big leap. He ranked 18th on the Equilar list, up from 54th place on a comparable list in 2010. He received compensation of nearly $21 million in 2011, a 51 percent increase. Mr. Freda is the first real outsider — and only the second person outside the Lauder family — to run the beauty products empire. Under his stewardship last year, Lauder’s net income increased 47 percent, while its total shareholder return, the change in share price plus dividends paid, increased 90 percent.
Taken alone, Mr. Freda’s compensation may seem high for a company with revenue of nearly $9 billion, said Robin Ferracone, the executive chairwoman and founder of Farient Advisors, an executive compensation and performance consulting firm. But, given the company’s stellar performance and the fact that Lauder fits more in the luxury goods category than the toiletries category, she said, his compensation seemed appropriate.
“The high-fashion industry tends to pay more than the big industrials,” Ms. Ferracone said. “It’s going to look fine to shareholders.”
BUT investors, among them employees with 401(k) plans, may want additional information to gain more context about whether executive pay packages are reasonable and appropriate.
The A.F.L.-C.I.O. has urged the S.E.C. to put into effect the provision in Dodd-Frank requiring companies to disclose the ratio of chief executive pay to their employees’ median pay. That would give shareholders insight into compensation practices, said Mr. Rees of the labor federation, along with the ability to compare it to those of other companies.
“It puts C.E.O. pay in perspective,” he said. “It’s material to investors.”
Don’t hold your breath. The requirement isn’t likely to come into effect any time soon, because many companies have complained to the S.E.C. that it would be a burden to comply with it, said Ms. Bowie of I.S.S.
“There’s been a lot of pushback from companies on that,” she said.
Mary L. Schapiro, the chairwoman of the S.E.C., said at a Congressional hearing last month that the commission was trying to work through “a lot of technical issues” on how companies might calculate this.
The agency has not yet set a date for companies to comply, John Nester, a spokesman for the S.E.C, said on Thursday.
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