VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

Clarence Werdlow, father of Michael Ri’chard (Risk Management), uncle to Sean Werdlow (former Chief Financial Officer) and Dorenda Werdlow (Finance Accounts) passed away over the weekend.  The funeral is Saturday, March 5, 2011 at Swanson’s Funeral home located at 806 East Grand Blvd in Detroit, MI  48207.  The family hour is at 9:30 a.m., funeral at 10:00 a.m.  For any other information, you may contact Michael Ri’chard, telephone number (313) 779-5001.   Please keep the family in your prayers.

City workers demonstraate against Bing attacks, including proposed pension takever

By RON GRACIA

Retired  Detroit General Retirement System President and Board Member

One of my MAJOR Pet Peeves is when statements are made by politicians AND reporters about a subject that is either not true or absent the full contextual framework. In the budget presented by our newly elected governor with respect to taxing pensions a statement was made tov the effect that only three other states do not tax pensions.
 
That is not entirely true.
 
My last research on the subject done last year reveals the following:
 
(A) Only 15 states tax Social Security:

 1. Colorado 2. Connecticut 3. Iowa  4. Kansas 5. Kentucky 6. Minnesota  7. Missouri 8. Montana 9. Nebraska 10. New Mexico 11. North Dakota 12. Utah 13. Vermont 14. W.Virgina and  15. Rhode Island.

(B) THE FOLLOWING I8 STATES DO NOT TAX PENSIONS: 
 
1. ALASKA 2. ALABAMA 3. ILLINOIS 4. FLORIDA 5. KANSAS 6. LOUISIANA 7. MASSACHUSETTS 8. MICHIGAN (AS OF NOW). 9.. MISSISSIPPI 10. NEVADA 11. NEW HAMPSHIRE 12. NEW YORK 13. PENNSYLVANIA 14. SOUTH DAKOTA 15. TENNESSEE 16. TEXAS 17. WASHINGTON AND 18.. WYOMING.
 
(C) WHEN ONE ADDS UP ALL THE TAX ISSUES, SALES, INCOME TAX, ESTATE, REAL ESTATE ETC, THE FOLLOWING LIST, ACCORDING TO AN INDEPENDENT STUDY , SHOWS THE MOST OVERALL-TAX-FRIENDLY STATES FOR RETIREES:
 
1. ALABAMA 2.ALASKA 3. COLORADO 4. GEORGIA 5. HAWAII 6. MARYLAND 7. PENNSYLVANIA 8) MICHIGAN (AS OF NOW). 9. SOUTH CAROLINA 10. WYOMING
 
 MICHIGAN WILL REMAIN ON LISTS B AND C  IF THIS PROPOSAL IS VOTED DOWN IN THE LEGISLATURE.
 
(I WOULD ALSO STATE THAT I HAVE NOT BEEN INFORMED OF ANY CHANGES AS OF THIS WRITING TO VARIOUS STATES’ POSITION ON THESE MATTERS WHICH MAY HAVE OCCURRED IN THE PAST SIX MONTHS.)

CAN MICHIGAN RETIREES LIVE LIKE THIS? Photo and test by KATHY BARKS HOFFMAN AP: New Gov. Rick Snyder is getting used to being driven to work each day by a state trooper. But the ride starts each day at his home near Ann Arbor, not at the official governor’s residence in Lansing.Snyder, who is staying in his own home so his teenage daughter doesn’t have to change schools, gets the side benefit of keeping the indoor pool, wine cellar and movie theater that are part of his 10,600-square-foot home. The stately two-story house is in a subdivision of million-dollar homes in Washtenaw County’s Superior township.

(VOD Editor: IF THE LEGISLATURE VOTES IN THE  PENSION TAX, PERHAPS OUR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF RETIREES NOW LIVING HERE, BUYING GOODS, MAINTAINING HOMES, PAYING REAL ESTATE AND TAXES, AND OTHER THINGS BENEFICIAL TO THE ECONOMY, SHOULD CONSIDER MOVING TO THE RETIREE-FRIENDLY STATES. 

A BOYCOTT OF MICHIGAN BUSINESSES MIGHT ALSO BE IN ORDER. AFTER ALL, THE BIG 3 HAVE NOT INCLUDED THEIR LAID-OFF WORKERS IN THEIR “RECOVERY” BY CALLING THEM BACK TO WORK!)

Support reporter DIANE BUKOWSKI’S appeal of felony convictions!

FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 11 A.M.

 Cadillac Place, Mich. Court of Appeals (W. Grand Blvd. at Second)

Bukowski under arrest Nov. 4, 2008

As attacks on the rights of workers and the poor are accelerating across the U.S., so are attacks on press freedom. Long-time investigative reporter Diane Bukowski was convicted in 2009 of “assaulting, resisting, obstructing, and endangering” two state troopers. Her appeal, by well-known attorneys John Royal and Sharon McPhail, will be heard this week in front of Michigan Appeals Court Judges David Sawyer, June Markey, and Karen Fort-Hood.

On. Nov. 4, 2008, as U.S. citizens elected the country’s first Black president, two Black men, James Willingham and Jeffery Frazier, died on Detroit’s east side. They were victims of a reckless chase by state troopers who violated numerous pursuit rules; they did not even activate their siren on the packed street of East Davison. Bukowski arrived two and a half hours after the chase. She was there for five minutes taking photos, after identifying herself as a reporter, before she was brutally arrested.

James Willingham, Jeffery Frazier

Bukowski is known for the ten years of coverage she did for The Michigan Citizen on unjustified killings by police, and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s refusal to prosecute the perpetrators. Her coverage of police brutality continues in the Voice of Detroit (http://voiceofdetroit.net), The Final Call, The San Francisco Bay View newspaper, and other outlets.                                                                     

She is appealing her convictions on the following grounds, among others:

• Judge Michael Hathaway barred testimony relating to her First Amendment rights as a reporter.
• Thirty-Sixth  District Court Judge Beverly Hayes-Sipes (now deceased) did not bind Bukowski over for allegedly crossing a yellow tape (which Bukowski denies), the sole reason for the jury’s conviction. 
• Evidence and testimony including a Fox 2 News videotape shows that Bukowski did NOT “assault, resist, obstruct or endanger” anyone.
• Bukowski was denied her right to effective assistance of counsel. 

WITHOUT A FREE PRESS, THERE WILL BE NO ACCURATE COVERAGE OF THE ASSAULTS ON WORKING AND POOR PEOPLE ACROSS THE WORLD NOW OCCURRING. PLEASE ATTEND BUKOWSKI’S COURT OF APPEALS HEARING TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!

For further info, contact Attorney John Royal at 313-962-3437, or Diane Bukowski at 313-825-6126. There is extensive coverage of her case, including articles from international media, on her legal defense website at http://freedianebukowski.org. Her email address is diane_bukowski@hotmail.com.

LOCAL 207 ORGANIZER

Official Newsletter of AFSCME Local 207, Issue # 137, Feb. 28, 2011

Phone: 313-965-1601    Fax: 312-965-1603     Email: afscme207@sbcglobal.net     Website: http://afscme207.com

Lansing rally Feb. 26 during National Day of Protest Photo by Daymon Hartley

If you wonder why you are being asked to go to rallies and pickets — here is a partial list of bills working their way through the Michigan state legislature:

• HB-4124-4218 would give the State Treasurer who is appointed by the Governor the right to declare practically any city or school district to be in financial distress and appoint an Emergency Financial Manager (like the Detroit Public School’s Robert Bobb). The bill has already passed the House and the Senate version has been submitted and 45 EFMs are being trained. The law would empower EFM’s to:
  • terminate labor contracts
  • remove elected officials and ban them from running for office for six years
  • dissolve elected political bodies (city councils, school boards, etc.)
  • sell off a city’s assets (i.e. DWSD, Belle Isle)
  • accrue debt which the residents would be obligated to repay
  • force our pensions to be taken over by an out-state fund (MERS).
• 

  Lansing rally Photo by Daymon Hartley

  HB-4140 would force all public employees into a state-wide health care insurance system and eliminate the right to bargain these benefits. SJR-C would remove the right to bargain health care benefits and puts it under control of the legislature. SB-0007 would require public workers to pay no less than 20% of our health care plan, vastly reducing our take home pay. 

• HB-4152 would freeze wages, including step increases, and pass all health care costs onto public workers. SJR-B would mandate a 5% reduction in all public workers’ pay. 
• HB-4059 would prohibit union officials being paid for union work, either crippling the functioning of our unions, or forcing us to raise dues to cover the difference. 
• HB-4054 (and other bills) would create so-called “right to work” zones, where all unions would be effectively eliminated.

Lansing rally Feb. 26 Photo by Daymon Hartley

Whether or not we have unions now depends on how hard were willing to fight. The elimination of unions is no longer a “possibility”, it is a direct and serious threat. The present target is public sector unions because today most U.S. union members are public employees. If they destroy public sector unions, the rest of the union movement will be too weak to defend itself. If unions are eliminated, or more severely crippled, our wages, benefits and working conditions, which have been eroded for years, will take a steep dive, leaving workers and our families at the mercy of our employers. Remember, vacations, sick pay, holiday pay, overtime rules, the grievance procedure, etc. are not conditions of our employment – they are rights won through union bargaining and hard fought struggle.  

Lansing rally Feb. 26 Photo by Daymon Hartley

In Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Idaho, Oklahoma, Florida, Pennsylvania other states public workers are facing similar, or worse, attacks. Workers, youth and our supporters across the country are fighting back, including weeks of mass rallies in Wisconsin. But the super rich and their bought-and-paid-for politicians don’t fear mere protests. So we must hit them not only with huge demonstrations; we must give vent to our righteous anger, not just our disappointment. We must use Egypt as our model for struggle. The blood-sucking, tax-dodging rich and their corporations must learn the hard way that the working class, the youth (especially Latina/o and black youth) will not let them destroy our lives. We must demand the rights and respect which we deserve.

Police jailed and pepper-sprayed students as young as this fourth-grader during a rally against school closings outside Northern High School May 1, 2007; DFT opposition teachers organized this and numerous other battles against destruction of DPS

From Defend Public Education/Save Our Students

(Note from VOD editor: Due to time constraints, the reports below are directly from the Defend Public Education/Save Our Students coalition. This editor has covered Detroit Public Schools activities for 10 years, watching as DPS has crumbled under assaults by state-appointed managers like Robert Bobb, with massive school closings and cutbacks, while DFT leadership has failed to mobilize its members to stop the attacks.

An updated story on those assaults will be published this week. But meanwhile, the DFT “board” under the leadership of alleged DFT president Keith Johnson voted to expel opposition leaders Steve Conn, Heather Miller, and Tracy Arneau from the union Feb. 28. The daily media is reporting on this primarily from the standpoint of Keith Johnson; if you want to read that side of the story, go there. Meanwhile, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Z6mqjVO1o&NR=1 to watch the video Johnson claims shows Conn assaulting him; it does not, in fact it shows mass opposition from the membership to the swearing in of Johnson and the DFT “board.” Also go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L256NTSufUo&NR=1 to watch Johnson shove Tracy Arneau and be restrained by the police. WHERE ARE THE CHARGES AGAINST JOHNSON?)

At a meeting held Sat. Feb. 26, first hand reports were given about the Lansing protests against proposed takeovers of cities and school districts across Michigan, as well as the current policies of DPS czar Robert Bobb. Also reported on were the March 4 National Day of Action in Defense of Public Education, and the April 13 National Strike called by AFSCME, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Keith Johnson, current  DFT  “manager” has told Steve Conn that he plans to seek a vote of his Executive Board next Monday, Feb. 28 after school to expel Conn from the DFT.  Conn would not be allowed to attend union meetings, run for union office, serve as DFT Building Rep, or even enter the DFT Building.  Johnson is also bringing internal union charges against Heather Miller and two other DFT members.

DPS teacher Heather Miller was arrested at May 1, 2007 demonstration outside Northern; after which she and her husband Steve Conn were fired by DPS, only to win their jobs back months later with $300,000 in back pay; in photo, she is asking fellow teacher to take care of her young daughter, one of students at the rally

This can only mean that Johnson wants to silence opposition before agreeing to a new set of TIP Priority School concessions and doing nothing about Bobb and Flanagan’s plans for more school closings and teacher layoffs.

We demand that the DFT Election Committee carry out the vote of the last DFT general membership meeting and hold a new DFT officers election now!

For more information, call 313.645.9340

sjconn@msn.com

Follow us on Twitter by texting this exact meassage to the number 40404:    follow steveconn231

Join us on Facebook: http://lt-lt.facebook.com/pages/Save-DPS/113229735379138?v=app_2309869772

Check out our videos at http://www.youtube.com/dftmembers

Northern students take the streets during school walk-out in 2007; they are carrying the Jayhawk banner for their team; Northern and dozens of other schools are now closed, with more on the way; DFT leadership has done NOTHING to stop this assault on Detroit's children

MORE ON CHARGES AGAINST TEACHERS STEVE CONN, HEATHER MILLER, AND TRACY ARNEAU

Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) nominal president Keith Johnson has brought internal union charges against union activists Steve Conn, Heather Miller and Tracy Arneau in a desperate attempt to bureaucratically eliminate opposition to his illegal efforts to reinstall himself as president of the union through a fraudulent ballot count, and to protect his continuing policies of collaboration with DPS EFM Robert Bobb.

In the recent run-off elections for DFT President, Johnson claims to have received 40 more votes than challenger Steve Conn. However, 718 of the 4,625 votes cast were not counted. The election committee refused to follow the bylaws and carry out a hand recount, which would have revealed Steve Conn to be the actual winner of the election. Instead, Johnson hurriedly took the oath of office at the last union meeting, before DFT members could even vote to accept or reject the election committee’s report. Johnson then fled the meeting, after which the members took an overwhelming vote of “no confidence” in Keith Johnson and demanded a new election.

DPS Czar Robert Bobb and DFT President Keith Johnson

“The charges are completely baseless. They are a cover for Johnson’s desperate bid to seize and hold union power dictatorially and thereby assist Rob Bobb in destroying public education in Detroit,” said Steve Conn. “Teachers are united with students, parents and the community to stop Bobb’s ‘search and destroy’ mission against public education in Detroit. We are fighting to restore democracy in our union and to save our students’ right to a public education,” Conn stated.

Johnson’s cooperation has been key to enabling EFM Robert Bobb to implement destructive academic policies which serve only to create chaos in DPS, thereby paving the road for privatization through the expansion of charters.

Last Friday, Bobb ordered a large number of teachers to be removed from the classroom effective today, reassigning them to the classification of “Math Coach” or “Technology Coach.” When Conn and his caucus, Defend Public Education/Save Our Students, organized teachers to resist the removal of teachers from the classroom, Bobb threatened an equal number of layoffs instead.  Whether through reassignment or layoffs, thousands of students will have their education disrupted mid-year, undermining continuity for the students and creating such overwhelming conditions of over-crowding in the remaining classrooms that teaching is impossible.

DPS Teacher Kimberly Porter wears Black to mourn loss of public education for children as teachers fought against contract agreed to by Keith Johnson

“These are untenable conditions. The overwhelmingly black and Latino/a students of Detroit are being denied access to education. The billionaires and their corporations must be forced to pay more taxes so that the government can provide the funds to maintain a functional school system in Detroit. Anything less is the plain racism of a New Jim Crow,” said Joyce Schon, attorney for the Detroit School Board.

Many Detroit teachers will be attending the DFT Executive Board meeting this Thursday after school to demand that the false charges against Conn, Miller and Arneau be dropped, to demand a new election and to demand that the union take action against Bobb’s latest attack on Detroit students and teachers.

Hundreds mass for “People’s Rally” at Michigan State Capitol in Lansing Feb. 23

 Capitol occupations and protests across country lead the way

By Diane Bukowski

LANSING – As tens of thousands of workers, students and community members occupied state capitols in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, and thousands more rallied here at Michigan’s capitol and elsewhere, the American Labor Improvement Association (ALLA), called for a “National Day of Protest” by public employees Wed. April 13, from 12 noon to 5 p.m.

The protest will take place at “YOUR LOCAL COUNTY, STATE, FEDERAL AND PUBLIC WORK LOCATIONS,” according to a flier published by Michigan AFSCME Council 25, representing 60,000 public workers in the state.  (See flier below.)

City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson (l) and State Rep. Coleman Young II flank Al Garrett, Pres. of Michigan AFSCME Council 25, representing 60,000 public workers

 “I commit to you AFSCME’s resources in this struggle for all working people, white, Black, Brown, green, all colors,” said Co. 25 President Al Garrett during a rally of at least 2,500 on the Michigan state capitol steps in Lansing Feb. 23, called by Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson. “This governor is setting up a dictatorship! Victory comes if we stay together!”

The Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ) said, “The The 97-union South Central Federation of Labor of Wisconsin is laying groundwork for a general strike if Gov. Scott Walker succeeds in enacting legislation that would strip most bargaining rights from most public employee unions.”

The paper said that the federation, which represents over 45,000 workers, voted Feb. 21 to endorse national work stoppages by union and nonunion workers.

Click on  http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_64c8d7a8-3e8c-11e0-9911-001cc4c002e0.html to read entire WSJ article. Also click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TmSNPpzkWc&feature=player_embedded#at=100 to watch video from Wisconsin published on AFSCME website, http://www.standforpublicservice.org/.

Youth at top of capitol steps led the way

“Two weeks ago who would have thought there would have been 70,000 people on the Capitol Square demonstrating on behalf of worker rights?” Federation President Jim Cavanaugh told the WSJ. “We have had an awful lot of statements of support from around the country.”

 (Click on VOD Alternet article, “Wisconsin ignites workers’ uprisings across the U.S.”, at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=4920, to read about protests in Ohio, Indiana, New York City, Atlanta, Boston and elsewhere).

“Bust Wall Street, not Unions,” declared signs carried by protesters in Lansing.

(Go to http://www.youtube.com/KennySnod#p/a/u/0/CVoejXESaJk to watch video of rally on capitol steps.)

Detroit youth demand NO TAKEOVERS

Hundreds came on five buses and in car pools that left from Detroit’s Northwest Activities Center. Firefighters and other union members from across the metropolitan area joined the protest on the steps, on the capitol grounds, and in committee hearings taking place in the House and Senate buildings across the street.

 The protesters chanted, “Whose city? Our city! Whose water? Our water! Whose pensions? Our pensions! Whose state? Our state!”

Dozens of Detroit Public School students stood at the top of the steps, chanting, “Public education is a right, by any means necessary we will fight!” and “They say Jim Crow, we say hell no!” They and several DPS teachers led a portion of the ralliers onto the State House of Representatives floor, which they briefly occupied before being turned away by Capitol guards.

Warren Schools clerical workers joined protest to stop school district takeovers

State Schools Superintendent Mike Flanagan just authorized the closing of 70 more DPS schools and other cuts proposed by DPS czar Robert Bobb, to ensure that the district pays its mammoth debt to the banks (see separate upcoming article).

Outside, Councilwoman Watson condemned anti-union and anti-home rule attacks represented by dozens of bills introduced by the Republican majorities in the House and Senate. In particular, packages of legislation in the House and Senate would allow state officials to establish virtual fiefdoms under emergency financial managers (EFM’s) across the state, as well as take control of Detroit’s Water and Sewerage Department.

Firefighters join Water Dept. workers

“Some of us will stay outside, some of us will go inside and have a confrontation with the governor,” Watson said. “Under these bills, our city charter would be removed, they are about to take over the water, there will be an emergency financial manager over the city, not voted on by you, not controlled by you, not even a city resident. We won’t let them dismantle pensions, the rights of unions, home rule, not today, not ever! YOU are in charge, you are not victims; this is OUR city, OUR state, OUR water, OUR land.”

Watson called on protesters to continue their fightback at a rally Sat. Feb. 26 at 12 noon at Triumph Baptist Church at 2760 E Grand Blvd. in Detroit. 

AFSCME Local 1023 President Sheila Pennington

The crowd chanted in response, “The people united will never be defeated.”

 In concert with the legislative attacks, Snyder introduced a budget Feb. 24 declaring his intentions to slash revenue-sharing for the cities, cut funds for schools, and otherwise assault local governments, forcing them into the hands of the EFM’s.

(Go to “Class War in Michigan at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=4622 to read about House Bills 4214-18, which were passed by the House despite the Feb. 23 rallies. Upcoming story will feature community responses at the Feb. 23 Senate Education Committee hearing on their version of the bills, which are being fast-tracked for Snyder’s signature.)

Linda Willis (r): Schools, Not Jails

“These attacks are happening all over the country, and then they have the audacity to turn around and blame it on us,” Cecily McClellan, Vice President of Detroit’s Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE), said. “They waste trillions of dollars on two wars, and now they want to defund our schools, our cities, our state government. This is about their taking control—we are looking at fascism, we must stand up!”

APTE President Dempsey Addison added. “These politicians have been been hired by the corporations for their own interests. They are destroying a public school system that is worth over $750 billion nationwide. They want us to sacrifice our children, our pensions, to send our sons and daughters to lose their lives on foreign soil for democracy, but we are losing democracy right here.” 

Whose city? Our city!

Sandra Hines of the Coalition to Restore Hope to DPS pointed to the revolution in Egypt as an example of what people in this country must undertake.

“Ever since we got off the boat from Africa, we have had to overcome so many obstacles, and we HAVE overcome,” Hines declared. “Now we have to have revolution in our hearts. Those people in Egypt showed us a real revolution in our lifetime. We’ve got to follow in their footsteps and have a real revolution in Detroit!” 

Bust Wall Street, not DWSD!

Mike Mulholland, Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME Local 207, which represents Detroit’s water and sewerage department workers, said, “We did not create the financial crisis! The bankers did,, but they got paid off, while we get laid off. We are gathering here today because we have no choice!”

He called on the protesters to join students Wed. March 2 at noon at Wayne State University’s Gullen Mall and then march from there to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center where public workers from the Detroit, Wayne County and the state will demonstrate.

State Senator Coleman Young II recalled the state’s proud labor history.

EFM threat affects local governments everywhere in state

“It was a group of like-minded men and women who stood together and saved labor, saved the middle class and really reinvented the great state of Michigan,” Young cried out. “This state is where we had the battle of the overpass, where we put the world on wheels, where we showed everybody what solidarity is about. We forged our rights in blood, sweat and tears. We are for job creation, and no more privatization. We WILL own our constitutional rights and liberties, control our water department, and defeat taxes on pensions!”

“We get what we are organized to TAKE!” emphasized Maureen Taylor of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization (MWRO). Marian Kramer of MWRO added, “We cannot let this stop here. We have to constantly battle the capitalists like you battle a tank!”

Rev. David Bullock, state-wide chair of Rainbow:PUSH and pastor of St. Matthews Congregational Church in Highland Park, agreed.

Even Dearborn firefighters, led by woman who says "I've had to fight all my life!" joined the protest; shown here walking to committee meeting

“There are more than businesses in Michigan,” Bullock said. “There are workers and families who need a recovery too. The last time I read my history book, we were freed from slavery years ago. The last time I read my history book, America was the land of the free and the home of the brave. We must get ready to fight this fight, not just during the first quarter, not just at half-time, we have to see it through to the end.”

On the capitol grounds, Linda Willis, with the Moratorium Now! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs, carried a banner reading, “Jobs and Education, Not War or Jails.”

In a statement, the Coalition declared, “Don’t balance the budget on the backs of the workers and poor. TAKE IT FROM THE BANKS AND THE CORPORATIONS. THERE’S PLENTY OF $$$!”

American Labor Improvement Association calls for general strike

EDITORIAL 

Libya and imperialism 

Published Feb 23, 2011 4:32 PM 

Of all the struggles going on in North Africa and the Middle East right now, the most difficult to unravel is the one in Libya. 

What is the character of the opposition to the Gadhafi regime, which reportedly now controls the eastern city of Benghazi? 

Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi

Is it just coincidence that the rebellion started in Benghazi, which is north of Libya’s richest oil fields as well as close to most of its oil and gas pipelines, refineries and its LNG port? Is there a plan to partition the country? 

What is the risk of imperialist military intervention, which poses the gravest danger for the people of the entire region? 

Libya is not like Egypt. Its leader, Moammar al-Gadhafi, has not been an imperialist puppet like Hosni Mubarak. For many years, Gadhafi was allied to countries and movements fighting imperialism. On taking power in 1969 through a military coup, he nationalized Libya’s oil and used much of that money to develop the Libyan economy. Conditions of life improved dramatically for the people. 

Egypt and Tunisia border Libya on opposite sides; U.S. could use Libya as a base against their revolutions if Gaddafi falls to monarchists

For that, the imperialists were determined to grind Libya down. The U.S. actually launched air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi in 1986 that killed 60 people, including Gadhafi’s infant daughter – which is rarely mentioned by the corporate media. Devastating sanctions were imposed by both the U.S. and the U.N. to wreck the Libyan economy. 

After the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 and leveled much of Baghdad with a bombing campaign that the Pentagon exultantly called “shock and awe,” Gadhafi tried to ward off further threatened aggression on Libya by making big political and economic concessions to the imperialists. He opened the economy to foreign banks and corporations; he agreed to IMF demands for “structural adjustment,” privatizing many state-owned enterprises and cutting state subsidies on necessities like food and fuel. 

The Libyan people are suffering from the same high prices and unemployment that underlie the rebellions elsewhere and that flow from the worldwide capitalist economic crisis. 

Current flag of Libya; green reflects the people's devotion to Islam, and is also the national color of Libya.

There can be no doubt that the struggle sweeping the Arab world for political freedom and economic justice has also struck a chord in Libya. There can be no doubt that discontent with the Gadhafi regime is motivating a significant section of the population. 

However, it is important for progressives to know that many of the people being promoted in the West as leaders of the opposition are long-time agents of imperialism. The BBC on Feb. 22 showed footage of crowds in Benghazi pulling down the green flag of the republic and replacing it with the flag of the overthrown monarch King Idris – who had been a puppet of U.S. and British imperialism. 

Protesters raise Libyan monarchy's flag in Stockholm, Sweden

The Western media are basing a great deal of their reporting on supposed facts provided by the exile group National Front for the Salvation of Libya, which was trained and financed by the U.S. CIA. Google the front’s name plus CIA and you will find hundreds of references. 

The Wall Street Journal in a Feb. 23 editorial wrote that “The U.S. and Europe should help Libyans overthrow the Gadhafi regime.” There is no talk in the board rooms or the corridors of Washington about intervening to help the people of Kuwait or Saudi Arabia or Bahrain overthrow their dictatorial rulers. Even with all the lip service being paid to the mass struggles rocking the region right now, that would be unthinkable. As for Egypt and Tunisia, the imperialists are pulling every string they can to get the masses off the streets. 

There was no talk of U.S. intervention to help the Palestinian people of Gaza when thousands died from being blockaded, bombed and invaded by Israel. Just the opposite. The U.S. intervened to prevent condemnation of the Zionist settler state. 

Imperialism’s interest in Libya is not hard to find. Bloomberg.com wrote on Feb. 22 that while Libya is Africa’s third-largest producer of oil, it has the continent’s largest proven reserves – 44.3 billion barrels. It is a country with a relatively small population but the potential to produce huge profits for the giant oil companies. That’s how the super-rich look at it, and that’s what underlies their professed concern for the people’s democratic rights in Libya. 

Getting concessions out of Gadhafi is not enough for the imperialist oil barons. They want a government that they can own outright, lock, stock and barrel. They have never forgiven Gadhafi for overthrowing the monarchy and nationalizing the oil. Fidel Castro of Cuba in his column “Reflections” takes note of imperialism’s hunger for oil and warns that the U.S. is laying the basis for military intervention in Libya. 

Victim of U.S. interventionist war against Iraq

In the U.S., some forces are trying to mobilize a street-level campaign promoting such U.S. intervention. We should oppose this outright and remind any well-intentioned people of the millions killed and displaced by U.S. intervention in Iraq. 

Progressive people are in sympathy with what they see as a popular movement in Libya. We can help such a movement most by supporting its just demands while rejecting imperialist intervention, in whatever form it may take. It is the people of Libya who must decide their future. 

Articles copyright 1995-2011 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. 

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
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GADDAFI TELLS PALESTINIANS: REVOLT AGAINST ISRAEL

By Ali Shuaib and Salah Sarrar

Palestinian youth support Dearborn rally for Egyptian Revolution

TRIPOLI, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Palestinian refugees should capitalise on the wave of popular revolts in the Middle East by massing peacefully on the borders of Israel until it gives in to their demands, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Sunday. 

Gaddafi is respected in many parts of the Arab world for his uncompromising criticism of Israel and Arab leaders who have dealings with the Jewish state, though some people in the region dismiss his initiatives as unrealistic. 

He was giving his first major speech since a popular uprising in neighbouring Egypt forced President Hosni Mubarak to resign, an event which electrified the Arab world and prompted speculation that other Arab governments could also be toppled. 

“Fleets of boats should take Palestinians … and wait by the Palestinian shores until the problem is resolved,” Gaddafi was shown saying on state television. “This is a time of popular revolutions.”

Union members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1733 gather in Memphis to protest unfair labor practices in 1976. Photo: Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty Images

by Michael Honey

COLOR LINES

Wednesday, February 23 2011

WHO ARE THE EVIL PUBLIC WORKERS? BLACK PEOPLE

In light of the clash of wills in Wisconsin, we should remember the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One of King’s slogans that we rarely hear is this one: “all labor has dignity.”

King spoke these words in Memphis on March 18, 1968, in the midst of a strike of 1,200 black sanitation workers that had lasted over a month. After rousing them to a fever pitch, King called for a general strike by all workers to shut the city down on behalf of the sanitation workers.

Striking AFSCME sanitation workers, Memphis, 1968

What was the demand of these workers? Improved wages and benefits, yes, but their key demand was that the City of Memphis grant collective bargaining rights and the collection of union dues, without which they knew they could not maintain their union.

These are the very two items that Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker wants to take away from public employees. He knows, as did Mayor Henry Loeb in Memphis, that if you can kill union bargaining rights and dues collection, you can kill the union.

Also like Loeb, Walker is a fiscal conservative. As he cuts taxes for business he raises costs for workers and says ending union power will benefit the fiscal health of the state. Walker wants to end the right of public employees to bargain collectively, even though the workers have accepted a tripling of their health-care costs and a wage cut to help offset the state’s fiscal crisis.

Jericho Road, by Prof. Michael Honey

In nearby Ohio, Gov. John Kasich wants to take away the right to join a union for 14,000 state-financed child-care and home-care workers, among the most overworked and underpaid of public servants. In other states, Republicans want to adopt “right to work” (for less) laws that would take away the requirement that workers in unionized jobs pay union dues. This would undermine the unions while, in King’s words, providing “no rights and no work.”

Even in Midwest states that have been union strongholds, Republicans now have public-employee unions in their cross-hairs. This is the latest and potentially most deadly phase of government assault on unions. Ever since the Reagan counterrevolution, government policies joined with private sector profiteers have vastly worsened racial-economic inequalities, created a gambling casino on Wall Street and paved the way for the current economic crisis.

Conservatives rationalize their attacks on unions by saying unionized public workers are unfairly privileged. But they only look privileged by comparison to the rest of the working class, which is suffering economic catastrophe and has almost entirely lost the benefits of unionization. Yet class envy is an easy means to divide and rule.

Racism is another part of the Republican arsenal of divide and rule. Thanks to the destruction of manufacturing jobs and unions, black and Latino workers in manual occupations have disproportionately suffered high rates of poverty and incarceration as many of their families disintegrate. The one toe-hold many black and minority workers (and especially women among them) still have in the economy is in unionized public employment. Now, the Republicans want to take that away.

AFSCME Local 457 President Laurie Walker, Lansing march, Feb. 23, 2011

In one stroke, by eliminating both bargaining rights and union dues, Republicans can insure that organized, dues-paying workers and particularly minorities and women will no longer provide a potent base for the Democratic Party. There will be few grassroots organizations left to counter the huge infusion of money into politics by the rich.

Workers in Wisconsin have agreed to make sacrifices to get state government out of its budgetary hole. But it would be a huge mistake for anyone to go beyond that and buy into attacks on public employee unions. Loss of unions will further decimate the spending power of working people, thereby intensifying the economic crisis while further removing the voice of workers from politics. That’s a downward spiral.

Republicans most especially want to undermine the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). Founded in Wisconsin, AFSCME flowered after King died in the fight for union rights in Memphis in 1968. AFSCME became one of the largest unions in the country, with King regarded as an honorary member and practically a founder of the union.

March on state capitol, Lansing, Feb. 23, 2011

In King’s framework, killing public employees unions today would be immoral as well as foolish. He said the three evils facing humankind are war, racism and economic injustice, and that the purpose of a union is to overcome the latter evil. King said the civil-rights movement from 1954 to 1965 was “phase one,” to be followed by a second phase—the struggle for economic advancement. We are not doing very well in phase two, and unions remain essential to carry it out.

I’ve recently finished a new collection of King’s remarkable speeches, titled “All Labor Has Dignity,” which shows that throughout his life, King stood up for union rights. There is no more important time than the present for us all to follow his lead.

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/02/its_1968_all_over_again_and_kings_fight_for_unions_is_still_essential.html

Michael Honey is a historian and Haley Professor of Humanities at the University of Washington, Tacoma. He is editor of “All Labor Has Dignity” (Beacon Press, 2011) and author of “Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike: Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign” (W.W. Norton, 2007).