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U.S. Out Now! From Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and all U.S. bases around the world; End all U.S. Aid to Israel; Get the military out of our schools and our communities; Demand Equal Rights and Justice for ALL!
TAX THE RICH NOT THE POOR! MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
On the 8th Anniversary of the War on Afghanistan
U.S. -- NATO OUT! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
End colonial occupation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Haiti...
Healthcare, jobs, housing, education for all--Not War!
San Francisco Protest:
Wednesday, October 7, 5:00 p.m.
New Federal Building
7th and Mission Streets, Near Civic Center BART
Volunteers needed: 415-821-6545
answer@answersf.org
ANSWERcoalition.org
ANSWERsf.org
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17 SAN FRANCISCO MARCH AND RALLY AGAINST THE WARS
U.S. Troops Out Now! Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan!
Assemble 11:00 A.M. U.N. Plaza, SF (Market between 7th and 8th Streets)
March begins at 12:00 Noon
Rally begins at 1:00 P.M. back at U.N. Plaza
Commemorating the eighth anniversary of the war on Afghanistan and the 40th anniversary of the massive October 17, 1969 Vietnam Moratorium.
Sponsor: October 17 Antiwar Coalition
510-268-9429 or 415-794-7354
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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ReThinking Norma Rae: A Union Icon Falls Fighting the Healthcare Industry
Video and article at:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-kim/rethinking-emnorma-raeem_b_287552.html
Take Action: Remembering Crystal Lee Sutton
http://action.americanrightsatwork.org/campaign/CrystalLeeSutton/8gg63ddr27e6k5bm?
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Taking Aim Radio Program with
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
The Chimera of Capitalist Recovery, Parts 1 and 2
http://www.takingaimradio.com/shows/audio.html
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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THE FINAL TWO OCTOBER 17 COALITION MEETINGS WILL TAKE PLACE:
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2:00 PM AND SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2 PM
Unitarian Church (Chapel)
1187 Franklin at Geary, SF (wheelchair accessible).
Let's reach out to as many people as possible to come to these final two meetings to ensure a maximum effort to build Oct. 17. Flyers will be available for pickup as well as cementing the final planning for important, last-minute organizational tasks.
We all need to step up and give our best efforts to make this a successful protest against these wars and bankster-bailouts, and for jobs, education, healthcare, housing and a peaceful world for all.
A new website has been set up at:
www.oct17awc.wordpress.com
A calendar will be posted listing activities and events for flyering and getting the word out about Oct. 17.
To arrange to pick up flyers, or to add another event to the calendar, call either of the numbers below. (Please note, Michael Moor's new film, "Capitalism: A Love Story" opens nationwide on Oct. 2. This will be a great place to flyer for Oct. 17.)(See the trailer at: http://www.capitalismalovestory.com/)
Please call Jeff (510-268-9428) or Kathy (415-641-1997) to volunteer at one of these great opportunities to get out the word.
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein
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National Call For Action And Endorsements at the
G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, PA
Sept. 19 - 25, 2009
For Immediate Release
September 15, 2009
Media Contacts:
Pete Shell, 412.422.7435, pshell1@earthlink.net
Edith Bell, 412.661.7149 or 412.728.3341
Federal Lawsuit over G-20 Protest Permits to Begin Wednesday
Most Protest Groups Still Haven't Received Permits
On Wednesday, September 16 at 10:00am at the Federal Court House on 700 Grant Street, downtown Pittsburgh, a federal court hearing will address the formal complaint issued last week by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the Thomas Merton Center, CodePink, the 3 Rivers Climate Convergence, Bail Out the People, Pittsburgh Outdoor Artists, and the G6 Billion. The lawsuit and the hearing are in response to several Pittsburgh G-20 protest groups and organizations that have been in a tug of war for several weeks with Pittsburgh city council and the federal government over permits for outdoor demonstrations. The complaint claims that the city and federal governments are in violation of basic American rights such as freedom of assembly and expression.
"We want the G-20 representatives and all people to know how to build a sustainable, democratic world," says Lacy MacAuley of the G-20 Media Support Team. "This is why it's important that the federal government issue the requested permits to all the G-20 protest groups. The ability to have ongoing workshops, trainings, and discussions in the encampments, as well as the ability to peaceably assembly on the streets of downtown, will build community, culture, and opportunities to educate about real sustainability and democracy."
The Thomas Merton Center Anti-War Committee's request to march from Oakland to one block before the Convention Center on September 25 has also not yet been issued. Pete Shell of the AWC notes that "the Peoples' March will be peaceful, and the lawsuit will ensure that we obtain the permit we need to march to within sight of the G-20 summit. The voices of the people, articulating solutions to the economic and environmental crises that the G-20 has gotten us into, urgently need to be heard."
David Meieran of the 3 Rivers Climate Convergence, whose group has been denied a permit for its Climate Camp, says that "there's a rich historical tradition in the United States of '24 hour vigils' and 'tent cities' as a protest tactic. The visual representation of an encampment is an expressive end in itself and should thus be protected by the Constitution. Camping is as American as apple pie."
Protesters urge Pittsburghers to support their rights to expression and assembly and invite everyone to the hearing at Pittsburgh's Federal Court House at 10am on Wednesday. They further encourage Pittsburghers to demonstrate these rights by participating in the many encampments and marches during the week of the G-20 Summit.
To endorse, E-mail: info@pittsburghendthewar.org
Or contact: Thomas Merton Center AWC, 5125 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224
Several other events are being planned by a wide variety of community and social justice groups in Pittsburgh.
For more information and updates please visit:
http://www.thomasmertoncenter.org/g20action.htm
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The Human Face of Death Row
Join us October 2nd at 7pm for the opening reception for an exhibition of paintings from three men - Kevin Cooper, James Anderson and Eddie Vargas. Two of them are condemned - on death row; the third has a life sentence - the other death penalty.
These three men use art to express themselves. We hope you will see their work, hear their stories, and take away an understanding of their humanity from viewing it.
PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS GALLERY
TELEGRAPH & 23RD ST, OAKLAND
October 1 - October 31, 2009
OPENING RECEPTION: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2ND - 7 TO 9 PM
JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16TH - 7 TO 9 PM - a memorial movie of Oscar Grant, with Uncle Cephus Bobby Johnson, other members of Oscar's family and Jack Bryson. Come for update: Meserlhe's trial starts October 13th, unless continued again.
STAN TOOKIE WILLIAMS LEGACY NETWORK: SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17TH - 4 TO 6 PM - with Barbara Becnel and Stan Tookie Williams' books for children.
LIVE FROM DEATH ROW: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23RD - 7 TO 9 PM - with Kevin Cooper, an innocent man on San Quentin's death row calling (at 7:30 sharp). Q&A with Kevin Cooper and members of the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee.
PLEASE JOIN US
FOR MORE INFO: CALIFORNIA@NODEATHPENALTY.ORG
510-589-6820
2278 Telegraph Ave., Ca 94612(click here for a map)http://www.mapquest.com/maps?city=Oakland&state=CA&address=2278+Telegraph
Presented by the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, a grassroots organization dedicated to the abolition of capital punishment in the United States.
website: www.nodeathpenalty.org
Also by Art for a Democratic Society, an Oakland based art and activism group specializing in participatory grassroots interventionist art.
website: www.a4ds.org email: a4ds@earthlink.net
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On the 8th Anniversary of the War on Afghanistan
U.S. -- NATO OUT!
BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
End colonial occupation in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Haiti...
Healthcare, jobs, housing, education for all--Not War!
San Francisco Protest:
Wednesday, October 7, 5:00 p.m.
New Federal Building
7th and Mission Streets, Near Civic Center BART
Initiated by the ANSWER Coalition--Act Now to Stop War and End Racism
Volunteers needed: 415-821-6545
answer@answersf.org
ANSWERcoalition.org
ANSWERsf.org
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NATIONAL MARCH FOR EQUALITY
WASHINGTON, D.C. OCTOBER 10-11, 2009
Sign up here and spread the word:
http://www.nationalequalitymarch.com/
On October 10-11, 2009, we will gather in Washington DC from all across
America to let our elected leaders know that *now is the time for full equal
rights for LGBT people.* We will gather. We will march. And we will leave
energized and empowered to do the work that needs to be done in every
community across the nation.
This site will be updated as more information is available. We will organize
grassroots, from the bottom-up, and details will be shared on this website.
Our single demand:
Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.
Our philosophy:
As members of every race, class, faith, and community, we see the struggle
for LGBT equality as part of a larger movement for peace and social justice.
Our strategy:
Decentralized organizing for this march in every one of the 435
Congressional districts will build a network to continue organizing beyond
October.
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17 SAN FRANCISCO MARCH AND RALLY AGAINST THE WARS
U.S. Troops Out Now! Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan!
Assemble 11:00 A.M. U.N. Plaza, SF (Market between 7th and 8th Streets)
March begins at 12:00 Noon
Rally begins at 1:00 P.M. back at U.N. Plaza
Commemorating the eighth anniversary of the war on Afghanistan and the 40th anniversary of the massive October 17, 1969 Vietnam Moratorium.
Sponsor: October 17 Antiwar Coalition
510-268-9429 or 415-794-7354
Money for Human Needs Not War!
Immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops, military personnel, bases, contractors, and mercenaries from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Colombia.
End U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine! End the Seige of Gaza!
U.S. Hands Off Iran and North Korea!
Self-determination for All Oppressed Nations and Peoples!
End War Crimes Including Torture and Prosecute the War Criminals!
See historical images of the Vietnam Moratorium at:
http://images.google.com/images?q=vietnam+moratorium&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=lGaISs7pMIP-sQOr2OznAg&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4
Image of San Francisco Vietnam Moratorium, Golden Gate Park, October 17, 1969 (I was there...bw):
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rchrd.com/photo/images/pb2-12-15.jpg&imgrefurl=http://rchrd.com/photo/archives/1969/&usg=__FeHN5CAwDXv-ewwCt2Hfni6ZUn8=&h=567&w=850&sz=143&hl=en&start=3&um=1&tbnid=EJH6Kzj6YI6zzM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=145&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dvietnam%2Bmoratorium%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1
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Please forward widely. Contact us if you or your organization would like to endorse this call.
CALL FOR OCTOBER 22 DEMONSTRATION IN OAKLAND, CA:
NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST TO STOP POLICE BRUTALITY, REPRESSION AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF A GENERATION
Oscar Grant. Brownie Polk. Parnell Smith. And dozens more Oakland alone. Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo in New York City. Adolph Grimes in New Orleans. Robbie Tolan in Houston. Julian Alexander in Anaheim. Jonathan Pinkerton in Chicago. And thousands more nationwide.
All shot down, murdered by law enforcement, their lives stolen, victims of a nationwide epidemic of police brutality and murder.
The racist arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates this summer in Cambridge, Massachusetts - right in his own home - showed that any Black man or woman, no matter their stature, no matter their education, no matter their accomplishments can be targeted for brutality - even murder - at any moment.
Meanwhile, a whole generation of youth is treated as guilty until proved innocent, and hundreds of thousands are criminalized, and locked away in U.S. prisons with no hope for the future. And immigrants are subject to brutal raids, with families cruelly split up in an instant.
We refuse to suffer these outrages in silence. We need to put a stop to this and drag the truth about the nationwide epidemic of police violence and repression into the light of day for all so see. We say no more! Enough is Enough!
Oct 22nd 2009 is the 14th annual national day of protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of Generation---bringing together those under the gun and those not under the gun as a powerful voice to expose the epidemic of police brutality. On that day in cities across the country many different people will take to the streets against police brutality and murder, against the criminalization of youth, and against the targeting of immigrants.
We call for a powerful demonstration in Oakland on October 22 demanding:
* Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation!
* October 22....No To Police Brutality
* No to ICE raids and round-ups of immigrants!
* Enough Is Enough! No More Stolen Lives!
* Justice for Oscar Grant and all victims of police murder!
* Wear Black, Fight Back
Contact the National Office of October 22nd at:
Info@october22.org or 1-888-NOBRUTALITY
October 22nd Coalition
P.O. Box 2627
New York, N.Y. 10009
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B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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URGENT ALERT!
Call-In To Save San Francisco's Only State Park Wilderness Area From
Toxic Condominium Development!
Within the next two weeks, State Senator Mark Leno will seek to pass a
bill allowing environmentally criminal Lennar Corporation to build high
priced condos on the wildlife habitat and parkland in San Francisco's
Candlestick Point State Recreation Area!
San Francisco Supervisors Avalos, Daly, Mirkarimi, Mar and Campos have
sponsored a local resolution to tell the State legislature not to wreck
our State parkland for real estate developer profits.
This measure needs the crucial sixth vote of Board of Supervisors
President David Chiu to win, before Leno's bill (SB 792) goes for its
own final vote.
**WHAT YOU CAN DO**
Call Supervisor David Chiu at 415-554-7450 with the comment:
"Please bring the Avalos/Daly resolution opposing SB 792 to a full Board
vote by September 15th and vote YES! Don't give away one inch of
California's only urban state park!"
If you call during the weekend or evening, or get a recording, just
leave your comment as voice mail.
For more on the State Park land grab see
http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/privatizing-california-senate-bill-792/
For more on Lennar's history of corporate abuses see page 3 of Our
City's Fall 2007 Update at http://our-city.org/Update-Oct07.pdf
###
This alert sent by:
Our City
1028-A Howard St.
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-756-8844
For more information about Our City campaigns go to:
http://www.our-city.org
info@our-city.org
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HELP VFP PUT THIS BOOK IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL OR PUBLIC LIBRARY
For a donation of only $18.95, we can put a copy of the book "10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military" into a public or high school library of your choice. [Reason number 1: You may be killed]
A letter and bookplate will let readers know that your donation helped make this possible.
Putting a book in either a public or school library ensures that students, parents, and members of the community will have this valuable information when they need it.
Don't have a library you would like us to put it in? We'll find one for you!
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/t/9311/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=4906
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Take Action: Stop Rite Aid's abuses: Pass the Employee Free Choice Act!
For years Rite Aid workers have faced unfair firings, campaigns of misinformation, and intimidation for trying to form a union. But Rite Aid would never have been able to get away with any of this if Congress had passed the Employee Free Choice Act.
You can help us fight mounting anti-union opposition to the bill that would have protected Rite Aid's workers. Tell Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act today!
http://action.americanrightsatwork.org/campaign/riteaidefca2/8gg63dd407ejd5wi?
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This is a must-see video about the life of Oscar Grant, a young man who loved his family and was loved by his family. It's important to watch to understand the tremendous loss felt by his whole family as a result of his cold-blooded murder by BART police officers--Johannes Mehserle being the shooter while the others held Oscar down and handcuffed him to aid Mehserle in the murder of Oscar Grant January 1, 2009.
The family wants to share this video here with you who support justice for Oscar Grant.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/21/18611878.php
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
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Urgent: Ahmad Sa'adat transferred to isolation in Ramon prison!
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/
Imprisoned Palestinian national leader Ahmad Sa'adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was transferred on August 11, 2009 to Ramon prison in the Naqab desert from Asqelan prison, where he had been held for a number of months. He remains in isolation; prior to his transfer from Asqelan, he had been held since August 1 in a tiny isolation cell of 140 cm x 240 cm after being penalized for communicating with another prisoner in the isolation unit.
Attorney Buthaina Duqmaq, president of the Mandela Association for prisoners' and detainees' rights, reported that this transfer is yet another continuation of the policy of repression and isolation directed at Sa'adat by the Israeli prison administration, aimed at undermining his steadfastness and weakening his health and his leadership in the prisoners' movement. Sa'adat has been moved repeatedly from prison to prison and subject to fines, harsh conditions, isolation and solitary confinement, and medical neglect. Further reports have indicated that he is being denied attorney visits upon his transfer to Ramon.
Ahmad Sa'adat undertook a nine-day hunger strike in June in order to protest the increasing use of isolation against Palestinian prisoners and the denial of prisoners' rights, won through long and hard struggle. The isolation unit at Ramon prison is reported to be one of the worst isolation units in terms of conditions and repeated violations of prisoners' rights in the Israeli prison system.
Sa'adat is serving a 30 year sentence in Israeli military prisons. He was sentenced on December 25, 2008 after a long and illegitimate military trial on political charges, which he boycotted. He was kidnapped by force in a military siege on the Palestinian Authority prison in Jericho, where he had been held since 2002 under U.S., British and PA guard.
Sa'adat is suffering from back injuries that require medical assistance and treatment. Instead of receiving the medical care he needs, the Israeli prison officials are refusing him access to specialists and engaging in medical neglect and maltreatment.
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat demands an end to this isolation and calls upon all to protest at local Israeli embassies and consulates (the list is available at: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/ About+the+Ministry/Diplomatic+mission/Web+Sites+of+Israeli+ Missions+Abroad.htm) and to write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to exercise their responsibilities and act swiftly to demand that the Israelis ensure that Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners receive needed medical care and that this punitive isolation be ended. Email the ICRC, whose humanitarian mission includes monitoring the conditions of prisoners, at jerusalem..jer@icrc.org, and inform them about the urgent situation of Ahmad Sa'adat!
Ahmad Sa'adat has been repeatedly moved in an attempt to punish him for his steadfastness and leadership and to undermine his leadership in the prisoners' movement. Of course, these tactics have done nothing of the sort. The Palestinian prisoners are daily on the front lines, confronting Israeli oppression and crimes. Today, it is urgent that we stand with Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners against these abuses, and for freedom for all Palestinian prisoners and for all of Palestine!
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org
info@freeahmadsaadat.org
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Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
For Now, High Court Punts on Troy Davis, on Death Row for 18 Years
By Ashby Jones
Wall Street Journal Law Blog
June 30, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/30/for-now-high-court-punts-on-troy-davis-on-death-row-for-18-years/
Take action now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=12361&ICID=A0906A01&tr=y&auid=5030305
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Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
New videos from April 24 Oakland Mumia event
http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=jlboak
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation (indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501(c)(3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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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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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) U.N. Chief Says Working Poor Still Suffer
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
September 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/world/18nations.html?ref=world
2) Judge Rules Pittsburgh Must Allow Protest at G-20
By SEAN D. HAMILL
September 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18pittsburgh.html?ref=world
3) Inmate Will Testify About Failed Execution
By BOB DRIEHAUS
September 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18ohio.html?ref=us
4) With Recruiting Goals Exceeded, Marines Toughen Their Ad Pitch
By JAMES DAO
September 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18marines.html?ref=us
5) Union Rejoining A.F.L.-C.I.O.
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
National Briefing | Labor
September 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18brfs-UNIONREJOINI_BRF.html?ref=us
6) Unemployment in California at 12%, Highest in Nearly 70 Years
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
September 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/us/19calif.html?hp
7) August Joblessness Hit 10% in 14 States and D.C.
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
September 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/business/economy/19jobless.html?ref=business
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1) U.N. Chief Says Working Poor Still Suffer
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
September 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/world/18nations.html?ref=world
UNITED NATIONS - While economists in developed nations are cautiously pointing to the first signs of renewed economic growth, the global financial crisis is slamming some of the working poor around the world, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, said Thursday.
"There is talk of green shoots of recovery, but our data show another picture," Mr. Ban told a news conference. "It is not the chronic poor who are most affected, but the near and working poor whose lives had improved significantly over the past decade."
Although the ability of the United Nations or any other global entity to collect accurate figures about poverty is in dispute, a point Mr. Ban conceded, there is general consensus that the poorest people in the world are staggering from the impact of the crisis.
Some 100 heads of state and government are expected to gather at the United Nations in New York beginning next Tuesday for what the organization is calling its biggest annual assembly ever. Much of the focus will be on climate change, with a special meeting on the subject the first day.
But Mr. Ban also wants to highlight the need to keep aid flowing in the middle of still-turbulent economic times. He compiled a report, "Voices of the Vulnerable," which he distributed to all the foreign missions on Thursday and plans to make a centerpiece of his own address to the General Assembly.
It includes a variety of grim figures:
¶As many as 222 million workers run the risk of joining the ranks of the working poor, earning less than $1.25 a day, according to an estimate by the International Labor Organization.
¶Remittance flows, which reached $328 billion in 2008, will drop by 7.3 percent in 2009, the World Bank predicts.
¶Hunger rates are up in every region in the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
There are also figures for how many people would be viewed as living below the poverty line, with the report suggesting it will be more than 1.3 billion people, up by more than 100 million in 2009.
But there is no consensus on that number. New World Bank figures suggest that while the overall number of poor people is falling, it is not falling as fast as it might. There are 50 million people living in poverty, defined as those making less than $1.25 a day, who might have climbed out in the absence of the economic crisis, said Martin Ravallion, director of the Development Research Group at the World Bank.
"If it wasn't for the crisis, the number of impoverished would have been 50 million lower," he said, noting the trend was continuing, with data for this year still incomplete.
Some economists dispute the data, claiming that the United Nations is pushing numbers that have little basis in reality to justify its own programs.
"When you start talking about the number of people who live on less than $1.25 a day, we just don't have any hard evidence for that," said Prof. William Easterly, the co-director of the Development Research Institute at New York University. "Talking about the acuity of the crisis based on these numbers is more of a political exercise than an exercise in real analysis - they want to raise the moral urgency."
Mr. Ban acknowledged in the report that despite its far-flung agencies, the United Nations lacks real-time data to gauge the full extent of the problem. "The current snapshot is in shades of gray, not full color," he wrote.
One of his proposals is for the international community to provide the financing for just such a global data-collection system.
The idea that the effects of the economic crisis, with its plunging employment rates and dropping demand for raw materials, have been delayed across the developing world is more a matter of anecdotes. "The economic crisis generally has hit poor countries later than it did the rich world," said Jon Slater, the spokesman for Oxfam International, based in London. "Rather than hit by the financial collapse, they were hit by falling trade flows, falling investments, falling remittances."
Unemployment numbers also tend to reflect the loss of jobs in developed nations that track such figures much more closely. In poorer countries, employment tends to be much more diffuse as more family members take the lowest-paying jobs in order to survive, said Lawrence J. Johnson, chief of the employment trends group at the I.L.O. Those coping mechanisms have also been battered by recent events - drought, then rising food prices, then the financial crisis.
The most pessimistic estimates on employment and the working poor may not be reached, however, because some global companies are beginning to increase their demand for raw materials from poorer nations, which tends to help better-paying jobs, he said.
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2) Judge Rules Pittsburgh Must Allow Protest at G-20
By SEAN D. HAMILL
September 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18pittsburgh.html?ref=world
PITTSBURGH - A federal judge on Thursday ordered the City of Pittsburgh to allow a group's tent city protest during the Group of 20 meeting next week, but he denied two other requests for permits for demonstrations, saying the city's goal of "protecting visiting foreign leaders is of the highest interest."
The judge, Gary L. Lancaster of Federal District Court, made his ruling just over a week before the leaders of 20 of the world's largest and emerging economies meet here in a gathering that has become a rallying point for a variety of protesters.
Six groups sued the city, state and federal governments last week after being denied permits after months of discussions.
Since their lawsuit was filed, the city granted permits to three of the groups: for an interfaith march by the G6 Billion group; for another march by the group Bail Out the People; and for permits for a group of artists to use a city park.
Judge Lancaster granted one of the remaining groups, CodePink, the right to use Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh to hold a tent city demonstration Sunday night through Tuesday night. The city had tried to deny the permit, saying it would conflict with a run in the park, as well as a free-speech festival being organized by a group supported by former Vice President Al Gore. Denying CodePink the right to hold its tent city "would result in the loss of CodePink's First Amendment freedoms," Judge Lancaster ruled.
Jules Lobel, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which was representing the organizations along with the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ruling for use of the park "shows that it's not just for the powerful, but for everyone."
Judge Lancaster denied a request from the Thomas Merton Center to end a march through the city on Sept. 25 with a rally on the Seventh Street Bridge, near the convention center where the meeting will be held.
He said the city's view that such a rally, with 5,000 to 7,000 people on a bridge, would be unsafe was valid. The judge also denied a request from the 3 Rivers Climate Convergence to camp out overnight in a city park all of next week because it would put too much of a burden on the city to clean up after the campers, and set a precedent for other groups.
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3) Inmate Will Testify About Failed Execution
By BOB DRIEHAUS
September 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18ohio.html?ref=us
CINCINNATI - Two days after the execution of a convicted rapist-murderer was halted when technicians were unable to inject him with lethal drugs, a federal judge ordered Thursday that the inmate be deposed for a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Ohio's lethal injection procedure.
The deposition for the inmate, Romell Broom, is set for Monday, a day before he is scheduled to be executed. His lawyers said they planned to file appeals in state and federal courts on Friday seeking to cancel or at least postpone his execution.
One of his lawyers, Adele Shank, said the appeals would present three arguments that executing Mr. Broom on Tuesday would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. They will contend that seven days is not enough time to recover from the physical and emotional trauma of the failed execution attempt, that Ohio's lethal injection system in its current form is critically flawed and that lethal injection, in general, is cruel and unusual punishment.
The execution of Mr. Broom, 53, was postponed Tuesday after technicians tried and failed for more than two hours to maintain an IV connection in order to inject him with lethal drugs.
On Thursday, federal public defenders argued before the judge, Gregory L. Frost of Federal District Court in Columbus, Ohio, that evidence supporting their case against lethal injection would be irretrievably lost if they were not able to interview Mr. Broom before his death.
"He has relevant evidence that needs to be preserved," said David C. Stebbins, an assistant federal public defender in Columbus. "Mr. Broom has, of course, the most relevant testimony of what exactly they did to him and the amount of pain he was put in."
The deposition is for a case in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.
"The core of the complaint," Mr. Stebbins said, "is that there are insufficient protections built into the Ohio procedures that guarantee it will be a painless execution, that the protocols are not sufficient to guard against mistakes and that they don't cover all issues like in Mr. Broom's case."
Mr. Broom was convicted of the 1984 abduction, rape and killing of Tryna Middleton, 14, who had been walking home from a football game in Cleveland with two friends. He maintains his innocence.
His case is the first in which an execution by lethal injection in the United States has failed and then been rescheduled, according to Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, in Washington.
Along with the court appeals, Mr. Broom's lawyers are asking Gov. Ted Strickland to delay or commute the death sentence.
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4) With Recruiting Goals Exceeded, Marines Toughen Their Ad Pitch
By JAMES DAO
September 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18marines.html?ref=us
Calvin Klein it's not. The advertisement shows men crawling through mud and under barbed wire, being smacked in the head with padded fighting sticks, vomiting after inhaling tear gas and diving, boots and all, into a swimming pool.
If it sounds like a teaser for a survival reality show, that's not far off the mark. On Saturday, the Marine Corps will unveil its newest advertising campaign, and unlike past campaigns featuring the Marines' stately Silent Drill Platoon in dress uniform, the new spot highlights in high-definition detail the grit, sweat and tears of boot camp.
"It's not soft," said Maj. Gen. Robert E. Milstead Jr., who heads the Marine Corps Recruiting Command. "It's not showing people in a nice uniform. It's not showing all the good things. It's in your face."
The new approach is a result of recruiting successes, General Milstead said. Thanks in part to the weak economy, the corps is ahead of its recruiting goals not only for this year but for the next three as well. And so the high command has concluded that it can be pickier about new recruits.
"We're going to toss a challenge," General Milstead said. "And if you rise to the challenge, we'll make you only one promise: we'll make you a United States Marine. That resonates to young men and women."
The corps is not the only service meeting its goals. As is typical when job markets are weak, all the services have been meeting or exceeding their targets, including the Army, which struggled just a few years ago when the economy was strong and the Iraq war was sending home large numbers of casualties.
General Milstead said that in 2008, the corps had its most bountiful recruiting year since 1984, bringing in about 42,000 new Marines. He also noted that the quality of recruits was higher: nearly 99 percent this year are high school graduates, up from 95 percent in 2007.
The bumper crop has been such that many new enlistees must now wait six months or more to get a spot in boot camp, and the corps has already met its five-year mission to expand by 27,000 Marines. Two years ago, when Congress authorized the corps, the smallest of the military services, to grow to 202,000 from 175,000, the leadership thought it could not reach the goal until 2012. Instead, it was reached this summer.
The new advertising campaign tries to capitalize on the Marines' image, part reality and part burnished myth, as the toughest and most selective of the services. A 60-second spot shows three young men - one black, one Latino and one white - hearing a silent call, and then running toward the rigors of basic training, a drill instructor shouting, "Move it!"
The spot, which will first be televised during the Florida-Tennessee college football game on CBS this Saturday and during pro football games Sunday and then Monday night, was produced by JWT, the advertising agency that has long been a consultant to the corps. The director was Simon Crane, whose film credits include helping direct the Normandy beach scene in "Saving Private Ryan."
Shot on location mostly at Parris Island, S.C., the corps's East Coast training station, the spot shows real Marines doing real basic training exercises, although actually the Marines shown are members of the elite Silent Drill Platoon, not new recruits.
With its focus on men doing rigorous basic training exercises, the new spot has a more testosterone-fueled quality than last year's campaign, which featured the precise rifle-handling exhibition of the Silent Drill Platoon at iconic American locales, from Times Square to the Hoover Dam.
It also makes no effort to show the emotional or mental challenges involved in being a Marine, like coping with combat stress or death. General Milstead said future spots might take on some of those themes.
General Milstead called the new campaign, titled "America's Few," a "prequel" to last year's campaign, because it shows how recruits are transformed into Marines. "It's the truthful, gritty image of what it takes," he said.
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5) Union Rejoining A.F.L.-C.I.O.
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
National Briefing | Labor
September 18, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/us/18brfs-UNIONREJOINI_BRF.html?ref=us
Unite Here, a union largely representing hotel and restaurant workers, said it was rejoining the A.F.L.-C.I.O. The union was one of seven that quit the federation four years ago. John W. Wilhelm, president of Unite Here, which has 265,000 members, announced the move in Pittsburgh six months after his union split apart. The leaders of the union's apparel workers' wing led an exodus by more than 100,000 members and formed a new union, Workers United. Mr. Wilhelm said some of the other breakaway unions were holding reunification talks as well. "While every union will make its own decision, we hope the labor movement continues to move towards total unity," he said.
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6) Unemployment in California at 12%, Highest in Nearly 70 Years
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
September 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/us/19calif.html?hp
LOS ANGELES - California's unemployment rate in August hit its highest point in nearly 70 years, starkly underscoring how the nation's incipient economic recovery continues to elude millions of Americans looking for work.
While job losses continue to fall, the new unemployment rate - 12.2 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics - is far above the national average of 9.7 percent and places the country's largest state fourth behind Michigan, Nevada and Rhode Island.Statistics kept by the state show California's unemployment rate was 14.7 percent in 1940, according to Kevin Callori, a spokesman for the California Employment Development Department.While California has convulsed under the same blows as the rest of the country over the last two years, its exposure to both the foreclosure crisis and the slowdown in construction - an industry that has fueled growth in much of the state over the last decade - has been outsized.
Total building levels in California have fallen from $63 billion in 2005 to $23 billion this year; home building this year is less than a quarter of what it was in 2005, according to the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. Roughly 500,000 of the state's job losses have been in construction, finance, real estate and ancillary industries related to construction, which has left thousands searching for work.
"We were at the epicenter of the housing bubble and we are at the epicenter of the fallout," said Stephen Levy, senior economist and director of the center. "The reason we are doing worse in California than other states is construction."
While California has enjoyed some signs of a comeback in recent months, unemployment, which is often the last economic indicator to turn around in a protracted recession, is expected to remain high in the state in the near future. For example, a recent study by the University of California in Los Angeles predicted that while the state will enjoy 2 percent quarterly growth in 2010, the unemployment rate would remain above 10 percent.
Such numbers have caused deep pain to a state overly reliant on personal income taxes to balance its budget. The stock market crash, which greatly reduced personal wealth in the state, and job losses related to the housing bust combined to smash that revenue line.
In July, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a budget that closed a roughly $24 billion two-year gap with extensive cuts to social services, parks and education. This has left the state with large numbers of people without jobs seeking government services in a reduced state, further pressing its resources, and further weakened potential consumer spending among laid off and furloughed government workers.
The governor seized on California's grim milestone Friday to make a case for his current pet projects - revising the state's tax system, fixing its broken water system, which has contributed to unemployment in the state's farm regions, and tapping the federal government for all he can get.
"The latest unemployment numbers reinforce the importance of combining federal, state and local efforts to put Californians back to work and to help all those struggling in this difficult economy," Mr. Schwarzenegger said. "Immediately addressing our challenges, which include reforming the state's antiquated tax structure and updating our water delivery system will move the state forward and build a stronger, more diverse economy. While I am pleased to see fewer jobs lost, my administration will not rest until job growth resumes and employment returns to normal."
Earlier this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke proclaimed that the country was emerging from its protracted recession, and doubtlessly, California is showing its own signs of recovery: In Southern California, the center of the housing bust, home sales rose 11 percent in August from a year earlier, and prices have begun to tick up as well; the state's exports are once again growing as international economics, particularly in Asia, have begun to recover and create demand for goods and layoffs have slowed statewide.
"Any economist would tell you we're in a recovery," Mr. Levy said. "Job losses are lessening, the GDP is rising, the housing market is stabilizing, and have you looked at the stock market lately? But the unemployment rate is the thing families care about. They don't care about GDP or China coming back, they care about jobs."
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7) August Joblessness Hit 10% in 14 States and D.C.
By CATHERINE RAMPELL
September 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/19/business/economy/19jobless.html?ref=business
In 14 states and the District of Columbia at least a tenth of the work force was unemployed in August, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday.
Even as some economic indicators in housing and elsewhere showed signs of improvement, jobless rates declined in 16 states from July to August. In every other state the portion of workers who could not find jobs stagnated or, in most places, grew.
Compared with the same time last year, unemployment rates increased in every state and the District of Columbia, fueling expectations that the many government efforts to tame the recession will not prevent a jobless recovery.
"We're not really seeing recovery anywhere yet, and it'll still be awhile before we see much of a difference," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
The regions that have been hit hardest - primarily those with once-bustling construction and manufacturing industries - continue to suffer, Mr. Baker said. "The only positive news, probably going into next year, will be slower rates of decline, not job additions."
Michigan continued to have the country's highest jobless rate, at a seasonally adjusted 15.2 percent, compared with a national rate of 9.7 percent. In the Detroit metropolitan area, the rate reached 17.3 percent.
Nevada and Rhode Island followed Michigan, with unemployment rates of 13.2 percent and 12.8 percent, respectively. The rates in Nevada, Rhode Island and California - where unemployment reached 12.2 percent - were the highest on record for those states.
Generally, Western states had the weakest job markets, with Plains-state labor forces relatively more resilient. North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska all registered jobless rates of 5 percent or lower. Compared with places like California, unemployment has barely budged in these states over the last year.
Nonfarm payroll jobs - calculated from a different government survey - declined in 42 states and the District of Columbia. Texas lost the most jobs from July to August of this year, with a net loss of 62,200 positions. It was followed by Michigan and Georgia.
North Carolina, Montana and West Virginia registered the biggest month-over-month increases in nonfarm payrolls. Economists caution that because such monthly state payroll measures can be volatile, these increases may not indicate a turnaround.
New York did not have a statistically significant change in payroll employment from July to August, but over the last year the state had lost 188,400 jobs.
The state's unemployment rate was 9 percent in August, up from 8.6 percent in July, and unemployment in New York City alone reached 10.3 percent in August, from 9.5 percent in July.
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