Reconstructing Internationalism with Labor For Palestine (Electronic Intifada)

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3871.shtml

Reconstructing Internationalism with Labor For Palestine
Zachary Wales, The Electronic Intifada, 23 May 2005

Those who follow Palestinian activism, from the McCarthyist “Campus Watch,” to the intrepid Jews Against the Occupation, are aware that Labor For Palestine (LFP) has emerged over the past year as a new campaign in labor internationalism. Yet as LFP prepares for its first national conference in Chicago on July 23, 2005, few know how it began.

Officially, LFP was born in June 2004 when I met Michael Letwin in Manhattan’s Union Square to discuss drafting the Open Letter, LFP’s founding document. Letwin’s unrelenting pro-Palestinian advocacy had recently cost him his presidency of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW 2325. It came down to a choice between title and conscience, he recalled, and “which one I would rather have when the day is over.” Across from where we sat, the Virgin Music Store stood like a garish backdrop for Union Square’s arena of musicians without record labels, dancers without agents, farmers without franchise supermarkets — we were off to a good start.

But the notions behind LFP were in the works long before this. They started in South Africa, where an international divestment movement in the 1980s threw a wrench in apartheid’s brutal turbines, yet where people still vanish in the night over political struggles like water privatization. Johannesburg is where academics are screened. Soweto is where Reagan-era “terrorists” form community crisis committees to defy corrupt authorities. It was where, two years ago, at a freezing August meeting in the Workers’ Library, people began speaking of a U.S.-based solidarity campaign for Palestinian workers.

The notions arrived in the U.S. in late 2003, and ruminated through the midnight hours in Al-Awda’s Brooklyn office for months to come. They were articulated at conference panels about apartheid and the AFL-CIO’s estimated $5 billion Israel Bond investments, or in the memory of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which blocked South African cargo from entering San Francisco’s docks in 1984. By the time it debuted at the Million Worker March in October 2004, LFP had a global following.

As the LFP Open Letter states, “international solidarity, the right of national self-determination and social justice are among the most basic trade union principles.” Those principles, also known as working-class internationalism, emerged as early as the 17th century and eventually heralded the anti-slavery movement.(i) By 1864, workers from Poland, Germany, Italy, France, Britain and Switzerland convened in London to found the First International, driven by Karl Marx’s dictum, “Proletarians of all countries unite!”(ii) This was the beginning of the International Workingmen’s Association (IWA), which was affirmed in two successive conventions, and which inspired other global labor collectives, such as the Wobblies — the Industrial Workers of the World — who established themselves in Chicago in 1905, and gave rise to the legendary labor martyr, Joe Hill.

The IWA, however, did not have an unblemished historical record, if its overtly masculine profile is anything to go by. Despite its noble worldliness, the movement was often tainted with bigotry and xenophobia. One well-known agent of this abuse was the American Federation of Labor’s (now the AFL-CIO) founder, Samuel Gompers, who told the 1898 Anti-Imperialist League, “How vital then is the importance of saving American labor from the evil influence of close and open competition of semi-barbaric laborers in the Philippine Islands?”(iii) Likewise, following World War I, white mine workers in South Africa formed armed commando units, one of which used the slogan, “Workers of the World Unite, and Fight for a White South Africa.”(iv)

These fallacies were familiar to Tony Cliff, who was born into a Zionist Jewish family in Palestine in 1917, and later founded the Socialist Workers Party. Internet-based biographies on Cliff note how early on he was puzzled by the way that Zionist activists smashed Arab farmer market stalls in the name of “Jewish produce only,” or how Zionist trade unionists promoted “Jewish labor only.” In this light, Israel’s kibbutz-style “socialism” was an existential farce, particularly because it was built on stolen Arab lands.

But as Lewis L. Lorwin writes, the real legacy of the IWA was inside peoples’ heads, and it spawned “the tradition to which the movements of a later day turned for inspiration and to which they were eager to trace their own ideas and doings.”(v) As a campaign, LFP is a part of that consciousness, that ongoing deliberative process of interrogating the principles of labor internationalism. Or, as Brenda Stokely, the president of New York’s AFSMCE DC-1707, said at LFP’s launch last year, “In the same vein that DC-1707 has stood, and still stands up for Jews as a persecuted minority in the U.S., so it is time to stand up for Palestinians, the persecuted minority of our world today.”

The very essence of LFP is to apply the critical, revolutionary lens of labor activism to the plight of Palestinians who endure the catastrophe of Israel’s division, dispossession and ethnic cleansing. It is these workers who raise children under the anarchy of sniper bullets and home demolition, who freeze or suffocate at meaningless “security” checkpoints, who endure the multi-fold indignities of occupation. They are women and men, Christian, Muslim and secular, and they are workers like any of us.

The day-long LFP First National Conference will take place at Truman College in Chicago, Ill., and will coincide with the AFL-CIO’s week-long quadrennial convention. The event will include speakers on topics ranging from academic persecution, to organizing labor delegations to Palestine. Finally, the conference will debut two new documentaries: The first is titled “Breaking Walls,” and was produced in 2004 by a delegation of European trade unionists. The second, titled, “Bonds of Disaffection,” examines the historic, contradictory relationship between U.S. labor and Israel.

More Information
# Labor for Palestine, Web: www.laborforpalestine.org, Email: lfp@al-awdany.org

Zachary Wales is a journalist and masters student in social policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

End Notes

i Linebaugh, Peter and Rediker, Marcus. The Multi-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.

ii Frank, Dana. “Where is the History of U.S. Labor and International Solidarity? Part I: A Moveable Feast.” Labor: Studies in Working Class History of the Americas Volume 1, Issue 1, 2004: p. 100.

iii Scott, Jack. Yankee Unions, Go Home! How the AFL Helped the U.S. Build an Empire in Latin America. Vancouver: New Star Books, 1978: p. 93.

iv Thompson, Leonard. A History of South Africa. New Haven: Yale University, 2001: p. 160.

v Cited by Frank: p. 100. Referring to Lorwin, Lewis L. Labor and Internationalism. New York: Macmillian, 1929: p. 58.

Protests Across the U.S. Support War Resisters (Socialist Worker)

http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-1/544/544_12_WarOnTrial.shtml

Protests across the U.S. support war resisters
‘‘Pablo and Kevin put the war on trial’’
By Eric Ruder and Jocelyn Blake | May 20, 2005 | Page 12

THE U.S. military put war resisters Pablo Paredes and Kevin Benderman on trial last week. But at the same time, across the U.S., activists put the Iraq war itself on trial.

Paredes, a Naval petty officer, and Benderman, an Army sergeant, both faced military trials for answering their consciences and not deploying to Iraq. Paredes was found guilty at his court-martial in San Diego, but he received a light sentence compared to the year behind bars in a military prison that he faced as a maximum punishment. Meanwhile, at Fort Stewart in Georgia, Benderman’s defense team won a motion claiming that the military’s prosecutor wasn’t impartial, sending his case back to square one.

While Paredes’ trial was going on, outside the Navy base in San Diego, activists set up their own court and put the war on trial.

Aidan Delgado, who received conscientious objector status after serving nine months in Iraq, told the mock court of the atrocities he witnessed while working in Abu Ghraib prison–and affirmed the International Red Cross’ estimate that 70 to 90 percent of the prisoners are there by mistake. “At Abu Ghraib, we shot prisoners for protesting their conditions,” said Delgado. “Four were killed.”

Two members of Iraq Veterans Against the War–Tim Goodrich and Camilo Mejía–also spoke in Pablo’s defense. “In reality, it isn’t the only superpower in the world putting Pablo on trial,” said Mejía, who spent seven months in a military prison for refusing to return to Iraq for a second tour of duty. “It’s Pablo putting the only superpower in the world on trial.”

Meanwhile, at the trial itself, the Navy judge, Lt. Cmdr. Robert Klant, delivered a stunning indictment of the war.

After law professor Marjorie Cohn explained on the witness stand why the U.S. invasion of Iraq was illegal under U.S. and international law, government prosecutors began hounding her about her prior statements that the U.S. wars on Afghanistan and Yugoslavia were also illegal. Cohn explained that both these wars–like the invasion of Iraq–were neither defensive, nor sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, and therefore were illegal.

At the end of the cross-examination, an exasperated Klant agreed with Cohn, declaring, “I think that the government has successfully proved that any service member has reasonable cause to believe that the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq were illegal.”

In the end, Klant gave Pablo what amounts to a slap on the wrist–two months’ confinement to his base, three months’ hard labor and a reduction in rank. “This is…a stunning blow to the prosecutors who asked for nine months in the brig,” said Jeremy Warren, Pablo’s lawyer. “It’s a huge affirmation of every sailor and military personnel’s rights to speak out and follow their consciences.”

Meanwhile, Kevin Benderman faces a new hearing in his case, where the military will decide again what charges to bring and how stiff a sentence to seek. Seemingly in retaliation for the defense’s successful motion for a new hearing, the government added two charges of larceny because Kevin received combat pay since January, when his unit was deployed in Iraq without him–even though the Army initiated the payments and Kevin reported the extra pay.

“I just know that I want the truth to continue to come out,” Kevin told reporters after he received the new hearing. “And I think that’s what happened today. Some of the truth came out that they mishandled the Article 32 hearing.”

The mock trial outside the San Diego Navy base where Paredes’ trial was held was just one of many solidarity actions organized in some 20 cities across the U.S. last week.

A day before his trial, Pablo addressed an audience of about 50 people in Oakland, Calif., by telephone. “This fight is not over,” said Pablo. “This is the first battle, and we are winning it in the streets.” Other speakers included Father Louis Vitale and Oakland City Council candidate Aimee Allison.

The day after Pablo’s court-martial, more than 100 people in New York set up their own mock court to put the war on trial at an event organized by Citizens for Pablo, Veterans for Peace, the local chapter of Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), United for Peace and Justice, International Action Center, Not in Our Name, the International Socialist Organization and others. Speakers included military resister Carl Webb, Linda Sarsour of the National Council of Arab Americans, Tod Ensign of Citizen Soldier and Iraq Under Siege editor Anthony Arnove.

During closing arguments, Michael Letwin of New York City Labor Against War summed up the choice that soldiers like Pablo and Kevin face, along with everyone trying to stop the U.S. war machine: “Resistance is not only a right, it is an obligation.”

At Hunter College in New York, Mike Stoll of the Campus Antiwar Network prosecuted the case against the war, while A’dam Farooqui of the College Republicans argued in its defense. Basing their testimony on real sources, students acted as witnesses, playing the parts of an Iraqi civilian, a Marine recruiter, a Halliburton CEO, a resisting U.S. soldier and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. In the end, a jury made up of audience members voted 10 to 3 to find the war guilty as charged.

In Burlington, Vt., 70 people picketed the federal building with chants of “They’re our brothers, they’re our sisters, we support war resisters.”

“The importance of what we’re doing today can’t be overstated,” Jim Ramey, one of the organizers of the event and a member of Vermont MFSO, told the crowd. “The U.S. armed forces are attempting to make an example of Pablo and Kevin and so are we. By supporting them now, we can give confidence to the many soldiers who are questioning this war that they can speak out, and we’ll have their backs.”

In Springfield, Mass., about 20 people picketed for two hours in front of the federal building. American Friends Service Committee, Traprock Peace Center, the Antiwar Coalition at Holyoke Community College and the International Socialist Organization sponsored the event. During the picket, there was an almost unbroken sound of cars and trucks honking their horns in solidarity, and many drivers and passersby stopped to take fliers about the two cases.

In Providence, R.I., about 30 people rallied in front of the federal building. Passersby joined the rush-hour protest or signed petitions before boarding buses, and listened as speakers addressed the brutality of the U.S. occupation–and the hypocrisy of threatening GI resisters with prison while alleged murderers of Iraqi civilians go free.

In New Haven, Conn., a small but spirited crowd gathered in front of the federal building downtown to show their support for Pablo and Kevin. The demonstration was called by the Southern Connecticut State University Antiwar Coalition and the Middle East Crisis Committee and was supported by several local groups. Though some military recruiters decided to stand across the street with their “Army of One” banner, horn blasts from drivers and thumbs-up from pedestrians showed overwhelming support for the antiwar message.

Together, these events showed that a new movement to defend those who resist the U.S. military machine from the inside is being created.

“Resistance is the essence of democracy,” said Pablo at a press conference the day before his trial began. “We learn in our American history classes about a resistance to the empire outside. I have to be a part of the resistance to this empire.” Everyone should join this resistance–and help build a movement to stand with people like Kevin and Pablo.

Frank Couget, Tom Dillon, Andrew Jagunich, Rebecca Lewis, John Osmand, Steve Ramey and Annie Zirin contributed to this report.

NYCLAW Statement on IFTU Tour

NYCLAW Statement on IFTU Tour
May 19, 2005

New York City Labor Against the War cannot support the northeast tour organized by USLAW for the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions.

As shown below, the IFTU — and its political affiliate, the Iraqi Communist Party — shares a position virtually indistinguishable from the Bush administration”s: U.S. troops must remain in Iraq for as long as it takes to crush the resistance.

(Since July 2003, the ICP has been an ardent member of the occupation regime, which on January 28, 2004 designated the IFTU as “the legitimate and legal representatives of the labour movement in Iraq.[1])

*June-July 2003. Former ICP general-secretary: “If the [U.S.] were to withdraw from Iraq, there would be a civil war and democrats would have no chance.”[2]

*June 25, 2004. IFTU general-secretary Majid Musa to British union UNISON: “[U]nilateral withdrawal of troops would be bad for Iraq, bad for the emerging progressive forces, a terrible blow for free trade unionism and would play into the hands of extremists and terrorists.”[3]

*September 28-29, 2004. IFTU international representative Abdullah Muhsin successfully urges the British Labor Party conference to defeat a resolution calling for “early withdrawal” of British troops: “[A]n early date for the unilateral withdrawal of troops . . . would be bad for my country, bad for the emerging progressive forces, a terrible blow for free trade unionism, and would play into the hands of extremists and terrorists,”[4] and would “lead at best to the Balkanisation of Iraq and or even worse a bitter civil war.”[5]

*November 23, 2004. ICP general-secretary Majid Musa opposes a December 31, 2005 deadline for withdrawal of U.S. troops: “[T]he withdrawal of foreign forces . . . is an objective that all Iraqis without exception seek to achieve. . . . However, the problem is deciding when those troops could depart. We have not yet built sufficient military, police or security forces to protect the security of Iraq.” [6]

*December 19, 2004. ICP general-secretary Majid Musa: “[H]ow can we [end the occupation] in view of the country”s complex situation, the current balances of power and the regional and international circumstances around us” . . . . [T]errorist and subversive acts will only prolong the presence of foreign forces and give an excuse to others to say the country is in danger and cannot endure the bad consequences and so the help of the foreign forces is needed.”[7]

*April 22, 2005. Saady Edan, president of Mosul IFTU: “[I]f [the occupation] ends now, it will bring chaos. Once the Iraqi security forces are capable, then the occupation should leave. But they are not yet.”[8]

In sharp contrast, the Southern Oil Company Union demands an immediate end to the occupation: “We as a union call for the withdrawal of foreign occupation forces and their military bases. We don”t want a timetable — this is a stalling tactic. We will solve our own problems. We are Iraqis, we know our country and we can take care of ourselves. We have the means, the skills and resources to rebuild and create our own democratic society.”[9]

Notes

1. “Official recognition given to new union federation by Iraqi Governing Council,” February 9, 2004 <http://www.iraqitradeunions.org/archives/000016.html>.

2. “NDI Assessment Mission to Iraq, June 23 to July 6, 2003,” p. 4 <http://www.ndi.org/front_page/1625_iq_report_072503.pdf>.

3. “UNISON Labour Link committee chair on Labour Party conference,” October 1, 2004 <http://www.labourfriendsofiraq.org.uk/archives/000006.html>.

4. “Open letter from Abdullah Muhsin, foreign representative of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions, to trade union delegates at the Labour Party conference” <http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/B1571.pdf>.

5. Patrick Wintour and Kevin Maguire, “Deal with unions to keep Blair safe,” Guardian, September 30, 2004 <http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour2004/story/0,14991,1316070,00.html>.

6. Juan Cole, “Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion,” Guardian, November 26, 2004 <http://www.juancole.com/2004_11_01_juancole_archive.html>.

7. “Iraqi Communist Party leader views electoral program, obstacles to elections,” BBC International Reports (Middle East), December 21, 2004.

8. John Lloyd, “United we understand,” Financial Times, April 22, 2005 <http://www.iraqitradeunions.org/archives/000262.html>.

9. Hassan Juma’a Awad, “Leave our country now,” Guardian, February 18, 2005 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1417222,00.html>.

Put the War on Trial: Pablo Paredes and Kevin Benderman

Put the War on Trial: Pablo Paredes and Kevin Benderman
New York City – May 12, 2005

Closing Statement for the Defense
by Michael Letwin
Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW)
Former President, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys/UAW Local 2325

Most people do not want to be sent to war to kill or maim – or be killed or maimed – to make the rich and powerful more rich and powerful. And like all empires, the United States has gotten around that problem by lying.

To steal Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico, it lied in 1845 about “Mexican aggression.” To conquer Cuba and the Philippines, it lied in 1898 about “Remembering the Maine.” To devastate Indochina, it lied in 1964 about being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Today, to wage war in the Middle East for oil and empire, the Bush administration lies about “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” “Terrorism,” and “Building Democracy.”

But the U.S. has made life in Iraq far worse than under Saddam Hussein. It has killed one hundred thousand Iraqis and maimed thousands of others; wiped out the national infrastructure; poisoned with depleted uranium; destroyed Falluja, Najaf and Ramadi; set up a puppet regime of CIA operatives to bless the U.S. war,
promote ethnic strife, and “Salvadorianize” with death squads of Hussein’s former security forces; holds more than 11,000 political prisoners who are detained, tortured and murdered in hells like Abu Ghraib; and plundered and privitizatized Iraqi’s economy.

Working people in this country have also paid a terrible cost. As of this week, 1,600 GIs have been killed and thousands more wounded; hundreds of billions of dollars have been squandered, while jobs and services at home plummet. And also this week, the Senate voted – unanimously – for another $82 billion to fund this
obscenity.

This war and occupation is indefensible. Legally, they are the same criminal acts for which the Nazis were tried at Nuremberg: (1) Conspiracy to Wage Aggressive War; (2) Waging Aggressive War, or Crimes Against Peace; (3) War Crimes; and (4) Crimes Against Humanity. They also violate Chapter VII of the UN Charter
and the Geneva Convention.

These crimes justify resistance – particularly since Bush’s crimes have been blessed, rather than challenged, by both Democratic Party politicians and the UN.

For those under attack, the right to resist is reflected in Article 51 of the UN Charter, which guarantees “the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence.” It is important to note that this right is not limited to people whose politics we may happen to approve. Today, with the vast majority of Iraqis demanding an immediate end to U.S. war and occupation, the Iraqi resistance is exercising this right by tying down the world’s most powerful military machine.

For soldiers in an aggressor’s army, resistance is not only a right – it is an obligation. The Nuremberg trials specifically rejected the defense of “following orders,” and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) requires military personnel to disobey unlawful orders.

But the resistance of PO Pablo Paredes and SGT. Kevin Benderman is not only morally and legally justified; it is also effective. The war and occupation in Iraq have given birth to a GI revolt reflected in a huge shortfall of enlistments and reenlistments – especially among people of color; widespread refusal to report for reserve and national guard activation; and nearly 6000 desertions. A mass GI mutiny ultimately ended the brutal and corrupt U.S. war in Vietnam; it can do so today in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pablo Paredes and Kevin Benderman are guilty only of great principle and courage. They, and all resisters, deserve our admiration and support.

Rebuilding Labor at the AFL-CIO Convention in Chicago

[Labor For Palestine is an independent, global solidarity campaign founded by: Al-Awda.org and New York City Labor Against the War]

Rebuilding Labor at the AFL-CIO Convention in Chicago, July 23, 2005

On July 23, 2005, LFP will hold a national educational conference in Chicago on the issue of Palestine, Labor and the AFL-CIO. At the same time that the National AFL-CIO supports the US war and occupation of Iraq, it also defends the “strangulation wall” and the institution of an apartheid state against the Palestinian workers and people. This conference will examine the history of the relationship of the AFL-CIO to Israel as well as the extensive investments of AFL-CIO pension funds into Israel Bonds.

We will also look at the active efforts of the AFL-CIO leadership and supporters of Israel to silence critics of Israel in the labor movement. This will also include the effort to purge professors and teachers who are supporters of Palestinian rights. The conference will also look at how and why the labor movement around the world has come to the defense of Palestinian workers and unions. We invite labor activists, trade unionists and union locals to endorse and participate in this critical conference.

The conference, hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine-DePaul, will be held at DePaul University and will go from 10am to 6pm. The event will include local and international speakers, and will debut two new documentaries on labor and Palestine.

———–

LFP’s Resolution on Israel Bonds To Be Presented at the Convention:

Whereas, the use of union pension money is a vehicle for bringing change against union busters in the US and around the world and,

Whereas, the purchase of Israel Bonds has helped the Israeli government pursue it’s continued construction of illegal settlements in the West Bank and Gaza and,

Whereas, these pension funds have been invested without the knowledge and vote of the membership of unions within the AFL-CIO and,

Whereas, the Israeli government has targeted trade unionists and their unions for repression and destruction and,

Whereas, the US labor movement opposed the apartheid regime in South Africa and opposes all regimes that discriminate against workers because of religion, race, or national origin and,

Whereas, US labor can no longer acquiesce with the polices of the AFL-CIO leadership including many internationals in continuing the financial support of this regime,

Whereas, US labor must divest from any regime or institution that violates international law, including the Palestinian right to return,

Therefore, be it resolved, the following trade unionists call on our affiliated unions and the AFL-CIO to divest of all Israeli bonds and to oppose the continued occupation and apartheid regime in Israel.

Details: http://www.laborforpalestine.org/pages/1/index.htm

Forum Charts Harlem’s Changes: From Black Mecca to Private Market (Amsterdam News)

http://www.indypressny.org/article.php3?ArticleID=2067

Forum charts Harlem’s changes: From Black Mecca to private market
By Karen Juanita Carrillo, Amsterdam News, 4 May 2005.

“This housing boom is creating a ripple effect,” political economist John Rynn said during last week’s Harlem Tenants Council forum ‘From Black Mecca to Private Market: Will Blacks still be able to live in Harlem?’ “As prices for rent increase on the Upper West Side, residents there are looking to rent in Harlem.”

Harlem, which has served as Black America’s cultural Mecca for more than a century, was once the place where Langston Hughes exalted in seeing nothing but the various shades of African faces. But these days, you’re as likely to see the faces of the neighborhoods’ white residents – as they venture out to do their weekend shopping or as they’re getting off the A train at 125th Street before heading to their Harlem homes.

White residents throughout the New York City area have been casting glances at traditionally Black and Latino neighborhoods like Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Williamsburg, Loisaida, Fort Greene and Crown Heights for a number of years now. And as they’ve expressed interest in moving into what were once landlord and public policy neglected areas, rental prices have gone up and developers have come flocking.

At the Harlem Tenants Council (HTC) forum that took place on Friday, April 22 at Harlem’s State Office Building, Rynn was part of a panel that included Prof. Robin D. G. Kelly, labor leader Brenda Stokely, housing activist Nellie Bailey, and Prof. Lionel McIntyre, moderated by “Like It Is” host Gil Noble. Panel members talked about the market force changes that are dramatically altering the cultural and societal appearance of Harlem. The Harlem Tenants Council has been holding forums and taking part in protests to keep the community aware of what it can do to stop the onslaught.

“We have always been in a situation where we are disposable people,” District Council 1707 President Brenda Stokely told forum attendees. “There was no effort by the City to beautify Harlem when only Blacks were living here. I’m angry not because I’m against development – that’s a silly argument! I’m angry because the City has only felt our neighborhoods worthy of development when we’re not here.”

When some 85 percent of Harlem’s brownstones and buildings were owned by New York City, the properties were left to rot and you often found trees growing through the center of brownstone shells. Former Mayor Ed Koch initiated a project with the aid of Columbia University to have the City sell those properties. But the terms of that initiative effectively excluded Harlem residents: area brownstones were auctioned to anyone with a minimum $60,000 salary, when most Harlem residents averaged $17,000 incomes.

Alongside the construction boom in what is now being termed “Upper Manhattan,” there is an orchestrated campaign to recast the traditionally Black Mecca. Once characterized as crime-ridden and dangerous, Harlem Tenants Council President Nellie Bailey says The New York Times is among the leaders in now portraying Harlem as “safe” and as a place to find the best buys at trendy new boutique stores.

“They want this community to be a Mecca in terms of tourism,” Bailey commented, as she talked about the increase in tour buses and local restaurants that cater to the idea of Harlem as a Black Mecca. So while traditional service providers to Harlem residents lose funding and begin decreasing and even eliminating their services – like Harlem Legal Services, which is due to close up shop in Harlem and move downtown – “public policy will have everything available for the white gentrification flowing into Harlem,” Bailey said.

“We have to figure this out – we’re in a trap, we’re in a jam,” Prof. Lionel McIntyre said. Pointing to the 1968 Kerner Commission report, which characterized the activists who protested urgently enough to change the situation of Black communities during the Civil Rights Movement as “underemployed, frustrated, militant, 16-year-olds,” McIntyre complained that today’s youth simply aren’t militant enough to create major changes. “We have to figure out a correct analysis of exactly what’s going on here,” he said, and “devise a strategy for an analysis of the issues.”

Any analysis of current trends can still look to the past for inspiration, Bailey told the forum: just as there was a tent protest to stop Columbia University’s attempts to takeover Morningside Park for construction of a gym in 1968, there was a one day tent protest on Columbia’s campus on April 27th. Termed “Bollingerville” after University President Lee Bollinger, the University’s Student Coalition on Expansion and Gentrification sponsored protest was an effort to show the University’s faculty and students some of the actual Harlem residents their school will be displacing, as it makes further expansionist inroads into Manhattanville.

“They don’t want us to have anything, they want to swallow us up,” an older woman in the crowd said as the forum drew to a close. “They did this to us downtown,” she continued, referring to the once-predominantly Black and Latino San Juan Hill neighborhood, which had residents displaced in the 1950s to make way for the building of what is today Lincoln Center. “Therefore, you have to know: your children will fight this, your grandchildren will fight this, and your great-grandchildren will fight this. It just won’t end!”

This article appeared in Edition 167 of Voices That Must Be Heard.

An Exciting & Unique Coalition Forms to Fight Bush (ANSWER)

http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=6117&news_iv_ctrl=1621

An exciting & unique coalition forms to fight Bush
Wednesday, May 4, 2005

May 7 in DC details

The May 7 People’s Speak-Out is shaping up as one of the most unique and exciting coalition events in Washington DC. This will be an informative and uniting event bringing together a broad, diverse coalition of labor, students, religious and antiwar organizations.

Under the banner “The People Unite to Defeat the Bush Program,” the May 7 event is part of a rising crescendo of struggle against Bush’s domestic and foreign program. We can defeat this program through mass struggle. In addition to hearing from and learning about the wide-range of community, labor, youth, anti-war and other associated movements, various movements will have the opportunity to draw closer to each other as a result of the May 7 event. We hope you tell your friends and family to join us this Saturday.

Below is a fascinating biographical material about the presenters at the People’s Speak-Out.

The People Unite to Defeat the Bush Program

National People’s Speak-Out in Washington, DC Saturday, May 7

Plymouth Congregational Church
5301 North Capitol Street NE (at Riggs Road) Washington, DC at 12 noon Doors open at 11 am. Music will begin prior to the program.

Directions: – By metro: Exit at Fort Totten station on the red/green line. A free shuttle will be provided to take you to and from the church. When you exit the metro station, look for volunteers with signs directing you to the shuttle. – By bus: Take the 60, 64, K2, K6, E2, E3, E4. – By car: Parking is available. There is street parking in the area directly north and east of the church. You can also park at the metro station – there is a small metered parking lot and a larger lot that is free on the weekends. You would then walk to the metro station exit to find the shuttle to the church.

Important information: – English to Spanish translation will be provided. Headsets can be requested at the entry to the church sanctuary. – The church is wheelchair accessible.

Speakers & Performers will include:

Reverend Graylan Hagler Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational Church Reverend Graylan Hagler is the Senior Minister at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ and the National President of Ministers for Racial, Social, and Economic Justice. He has been one of the leading voices in the U.S. anti-war movement over the last several years. Rev. Hagler has also been a recognized leader in the effort to win support for workers fighting for union rights. He has been involved in groundbreaking nationwide struggle to make affordable housing accessible to working class families.

Mahdi Bray Executive Director, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation Imam Mahdi Bray is a long time civil and human rights activist. He is currently the Executive Director of the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation, and the President of the Coordinating Council of Muslim Organizations (CCMO). He also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice and the Interfaith Alliance, and on the advisory board of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. He has been a leading organizer in the antiwar movement and the movement to defend members of the Muslim community who have been unjustly investigated and detained.

Rashida Roberts Georgetown Hunger striker After three years of organizing for a Living Wage for all Georgetown University campus workers, the Living Wage Coalition called for a hunger strike: coalition members would not consume food again until this university has accepted all of their demands by adopting a Living Wage policy based firmly on costs of living in DC. Rashida Roberts, a senior at Georgetown, was one of those hunger strikers. On the 9th day of the hunger strike, March 23, Georgetown University announced the adoption of a comprehensive Just Employment Policy that includes a Living Wage.

Steve Hardy, Hattie Howard and Harold Andrews SEIU Local 82 (Service Employees International Union) Steve Hardy, Hattie Howard and Harold Andrews are workers at Howard University and members of SEIU Local 82 which represents over 7,000 janitors in the Washington DC area, including the workers at Howard University. Since September 2004, members of SEIU Local 82 at Howard University have been struggling for a living wage increase. Many workers make as little as $8.65 per hour, but one of the major problems faced by all workers is the lack of staffing. The speakers will highlight the problems they face on Howard University campus and the struggle that has led to a wage increase for all workers.

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard Partnership for Civil Justice Mara Verheyden-Hilliard is the co-founder, along with Carl Messineo, of the Partnership for Civil Justice, a public interest law firm in Washington, DC that handles constitutional law, civil rights, women’s rights and economic justice matters. She represents progressive political activists and organizations in numerous First Amendment cases fighting widespread violations of free speech rights, including class action claims arising from mass arrests and brutality at anti-globalization and anti-war demonstrations. She is lead counsel in litigation against the City of New York and Mayor Bloomberg over the right of protestors to hold mass assemblies in Central Park and its Great Lawn. She is on the National Steering Committee of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and co-chair of the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee.

Vanessa Dixon DC Healthcare Coalition Vanessa Dixon is a community organizer and a founding member of the DC Health Care Coalition, established to save DC General Hospital, formerly the only public hospital in the Nation’s Capital. The coalition now seeks to restore a public hospital to ensure equal access to quality health care for all regardless of ability to pay.

Members of Empower DC Members of Empower DC – the District of Columbia Grassroots Empowerment Project – will describe the work of this community organization dedicated to organizing and developing the leadership skills of the people most affected by the city’s pressing social problems. Empower DC’s major program activities are the preservation and production of affordable housing for low and moderate income residents, and the prevention of displacement of long-term residents; and securing the availability of quality, affordable childcare for low- and moderate-income working parents. They will also describe the impact of Bush’s proposed budget, particularly with regards to housing.

Printing Publishing Media Workers Sector, Communications Workers of America (CWA) The Mailers and Helpers at the Washington Post – the workers who package the paper for delivery – have been working without a contract for almost two years. The Utility Mailers, who are almost all people of color, do the same work as a Journeyman Mailer – but they get paid less than half as much. And there’s no way to move up for better pay. Most can’t even afford health coverage. The CWA-PPMWS is calling for equal pay for equal work. Those in the Washington DC area may have seen their advertisements with the slogan “Equal Work. Unequal Pay. It doesn’t add up at the Washington Post.” In its contract talks with its Mailers and Helpers, the Washington Post is also trying to take away overtime pay for extra hours worked.

Ricardo Juarez Mexicanos Sin Fronteras and Woodbridge Workers Committee The Workers Committee of Woodbridge is a project of Mexicanos Sin Fronteras (Mexicans Without Borders), an immigrant community based organization located in the tri-state region of Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. On October 19, 2004, over two dozen workers from Woodbridge, including members of the Workers Committee of Woodbridge and Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, were arrested on misdemeanor loitering charges (declared unconstitutional by the federal Supreme Court) while seeking employment. Of these, at least ten were turned over to federal immigration authorities and eight faced imminent deportation. This unprecedented police action generated a public outcry locally, regionally and nationally. Since then, the committee has been working closely with supporters and community organizations to obtain justice for the workers.

Macrina Cardenas Mexico Solidarity Network The Mexico Solidarity Network struggles for democracy, economic justice and human rights on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. MSN is a grassroots-based organization dedicated to profound social change that challenges existing power relationships and builds alternatives.

Brenda Stokely President of District Council 1707 AFSCME Co-Chair of New York City Labor Against the War Brenda Stokely is the President of District Council 1707 AFSCME in New York City and the Co-Chair of New York City Labor Against the War. She has been a leader in the anti-war movement. She, along with other members of New York City Labor Against the War and other progressive unionists, has organized worker delegations to participate in anti-war protests. She was a leading spokesperson for the Million Worker March. District Council 1707 represents more than 7,000 daycare teachers and workers in New York City. Many of these workers receive extremely low pay as they provide an invaluable service for mainly low income children in the New York City area.

Ramsey Clark Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark is an international human rights lawyer and activist. He was Attorney General in the Johnson Administration. As a lawyer he has represented well-known political prisoners, such as Native American prisoner Leonard Peltier, Philip Berigan, Lori Berinson and many others. Ramsey Clark traveled to North Vietnam, Iran, Libya, Grenada, Panama, Yugoslavia, Palestine, Sudan, Iraq and elsewhere to expose the true impacts and aim of U.S. foreign policy.

Ben Dupuy General Secretary, National Popular Party of Haiti (PPN) Ben Dupuy is the Secretary General of the National Popular Party, Co-Director of Haiti Progres, former Ambassador At Large for the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1993), and Publisher of Haiti Progres newspaper, the most widely read Haitian weekly, which is based in Brooklyn, New York.

Michael Berg (message) Father of Nicholas Berg Michael Berg’s son, Nicholas, was killed in Iraq in 2004. Michael has been an outspoken opponent of the occupation of Iraq.

Brian Becker National Coordinator, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Brian Becker is the National Coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. He was the principal organizer and spokesperson for the massive anti-war demonstrations in Washington, DC between October 26, 2002, and today. He has debated frequently on national television and radio representing the anti-war movement. In addition to lecturing at universities and college campuses, Brian’s essays have appeared in numerous books on the Iraq war, Yugoslavia, and Korea. He was the co-coordinator of the Korea Truth Commission. Brian is currently a member of the editorial board of the magazine Socialism and Liberation.

Alina Serrano Casa Atabex Women’s Group NYC Alina Serrano has been an activist in the Vieques Support Campaign and the SLAM! student group at Hunter College in New York City. At 22 years old, she is already a veteran of student and community activism. She is member of the Casa Atabex women’s group, fighting for funding for women’s shelters in the Bronx at a time when billions of dollars are being siphoned into the war.

Jeanette Caceres Student New York University Jeanette Caceres, 20 years old, is a student at New York University. In addition to anti-war activism in her school, she is part of the fight against gentrification in Harlem, where she lives. She has been active in a struggle to win a Latino Studies program at NYU.

Shawn Garcia Puerto Rican Community Youth Activist, NYC Shawn Garcia, 21 years old, has been active in a number of groups, including the ProLibertad Youth group, dedicated to building support for the Puerto Rican political prisoners held in U.S. prisons and building support for the Puerto Rican national liberation struggle. He has been active in educating members of his community to be active in a broad political struggle against the U.S. government war at home and around the world.

Peta Lindsay National Youth & Student Coordinator, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Peta Lindsay is the National Youth & Student Coordinator of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. She became involved in the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition while attending School Without Walls Senior High in September 2001 and is currently a student at Howard University. Peta has worked as a HIV peer outreach worker with the Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League (SMYAL) in Washington DC, and while in middle school in Philadelphia was an activist in the Student Union, which organized and campaigned for funding for Philadelphia public schools.

Ana Edwards Defenders for Freedom, Justice and Equality Ana Edwards is a founding member of The Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, an organization of Richmond, Virginia area residents working for the survival of their community through education and social justice activities. She is the chair of the Sacred Ground Historical Restoration Project of the Defenders, which is working to reclaim a more than 200-year-old Black cemetery that today lies abandoned and unmarked under a downtown Richmond parking lot. The project is also leading a campaign to stop the construction of a baseball stadium in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom district, once the site of one of the largest slave-trading areas in the country. Ana is the descendant of two enslaved Africans sold out of Shockoe Bottom in the 1840s, and is an artist and working mother of two sons.

Tenants’ Rights & Affordable Housing
* Betty Sellers, Tenant Action Network
* Jim McGrath, Director, Tenant’s Advocacy Network (TENAC)
* Lester Cuffie, Executive Director, DC Coalition for Housing Justice
* (invited) DC Tenants’ Alliance Several DC area housing groups will be represented to discuss the critical issues of housing, tenants’ rights, rent control and the displacement and gentrification taking place in the District of Columbia and across the country.

N’COBRA: National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America N’COBRA is a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to the economic, cultural, intellectual, political, social, and spiritual empowerment of Black people in the United States. They say, “We want our just inheritance: the trillions of dollars due us for the labor of our ancestors who worked for hundreds of years without pay. We demand the resources required removing all badges and indicia of slavery.”

Upward Bound Upward Bound is a program created under Johnson’s “Great Society” to provide college preparatory opportunities to the children from working class families. It provides tutoring as well as SAT prep and college visits, and it also waives application fees and other things, attempting to remove the barriers many low income children face in trying to attend an institution of higher learning

Gael Murphy CodePink: Women for Peace Gael Murphy is a co-creator of CodePink, a women initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement that seeks positive social change through proactive, creative protest and non-violent direct action.

Also, hear the newly-formed jazz quartet of progressive musicians, including Carl Cornwell on saxophone, Henry Lindsay on guitar, Matt Murray on bass, and a guest drummer. Carl Cornwell has played saxophone with Gil Scott-Heron and piano with Pharoah Sanders. He was formerly in the band Unit Circle. Henry Lindsay has worked with Nancy Wilson and Irene Reid. He has played in a number of Broadway shows. Matt Murray is a classically trained bass player with a masters degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. He plays freelance in the Washington DC area.

The event will be co-MCed by Jane English, representing the Plymouth Congregational UCC Board of Social Action, and Eugene Puryear, representing the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition.

Revive May Day

A Call to the Workers and Social Justice Movement, to the Anti-war Movement, to all Progressive People:

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Revive May Day–International Worker’s Day Unite with
working and poor people all over the world
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Jobs not War! Bring the Troops Home Now! Solidarity Makes Us Stronger!

SUNDAY MAY 1ST — 1:00 P.M. RALLY AND MARCH IN UNION SQUARE
14TH STREET IN NEW YORK CITY

The Million Worker March Movement, the Troops Out Now Coalition and scores of other progressive groups are calling for a “JOBS NOT WAR-Bring the Troops Home Now!” MAY DAY RALLY and MARCH in Union Square on Sunday, May 1, beginning at 1:00 p.m.

The rally is part of a campaign across the country to revive May Day in the U.S.

Reclaiming May Day reflects a growing consensus among many of us that the movement can only move forward by fully uniting the anti-war movement with the worker’s movement and with those communities which suffer the most from war, cutbacks, poverty and repression.

This is now more decisive than ever.

It is hardly necessary to review the magnitude of suffering that global capitalism, and in particular the onslaught of U.S. imperialist war, has brought to the people of the world, especially since 9/11. Nor is it necessary to underscore the grave danger that endless war abroad in pursuit of empire and war at home against working and poor people represents.

The empire has demonstrated that if allowed, it will rule the world by military force, and pit worker against worker on a global scale that has no precedent in history, in its quest for profits.

We must unite and organize to meet this danger.

Our challenge is to work harder and act more boldly in linking our struggle against the war to our struggle against the war at home.

You don’t turn off ordinary working people by talking about Palestine, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti Columbia, North Korea or Iran. On the contrary, workers think about the world a great deal these days. The problem is that they get misinformation from the mainstream media. It’s up to those of us who know better to break things down to people and make all the connections.

Whether our struggle is against union busting and the “Walmartization” of workers’ wages, or unemployment (and underemployment), especially in the Black and Latino communities, or the drive to dismantle what remains of the so called “safety net”–including Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public education and subsidized housing–let’s bring back May Day and turn that day into a clarion call for a new level of unity.

Recent history has proven once again that we cannot depend on the system’s elections, and its politicians, or any other force but the united power of working and poor people all over the world to accomplish this urgent task.

No single day or demonstration can do this. However, understanding the meaning of May Day–international workers’ day–and embracing its meaning by bringing May Day back is an important part of this process.

No challenge before us as a movement is greater than the need to usher in a whole new epoch of solidarity. May Day is about solidarity. May Day is about standing together. May Day is about uniting against all that imperialism would employ to divide us. May Day is about reaffirming our belief that the future belongs to the majority of the people in the world and not a handful of billionaires.

May Day belongs to the working class.

For this reason the Million Worker March Movement set the reclaiming of May Day 2005 as one of its principal goals at a meeting of regional representatives the day after its historic Oct. 17, 2004 rally at the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C.

The Troops Out Now Coalition, which organized the March 19 “Bring The Troops Home Now” march from Harlem to Central Park, has joined MWMM’s call. One of the reasons that the March 19 demonstration began in Harlem was to say what can be expressed better through actions than words sometimes: The struggle against the war in Iraq is also the struggle against the war at home.

MAY DAY–International Workers’ Day–grew out of the struggle of working people in this country more than 100 years ago for an 8-hour work day with a full day’s pay.

All over the world, working and poor people march on May Day to send the message that working and poor people are determined to forge greater unity in the struggle against global capitalism, imperialism and the misery and war it produces.

The main reason why May Day is not widely celebrated or well known in the U.S. is that the system, frightened by the prospect of a worldwide movement of workers and progressive forces, has sought to bury the history of May Day in this country.

This was done for the very same reason that the government has sought to silence and crush radicals, and radical ideas in the labor movement, particularly during the infamous “witch hunt” period of the 1950’s and the progressive and revolutionary movements of the 1960’s. Their war on radicals, and radical ideas like international solidarity, continues today.

Our interest in reviving May Day does not come from nostalgia for times past, but from the need to nurture a higher political consciousness about how important solidarity and political independence is to the strength of our movement.

We don’t need to have a million workers in Union Square on May Day 2005. But enough of us can be there to help set the direction that the movement needs to move in on May Day. And together we can, and we will, do this.

On May Day 2005, let’s bring back that fighting spirit.

* END THE OCCUPATION OF IRAQ, STOP ENDLESS WAR
* WE DEMAND JOBS AT DECENT WAGES, HEALTH CARE, HOUSING AND EDUCATION FOR ALL
* SOLIDARITY WITH IMMIGRANTS WORKERS — WE WILL NOT BE DIVIDED
* HANDS OFF SOCIAL SECURITY
* UNITE AGAINST RACISM AND POLITICAL REPRESSION
* STOP THE REINSTATEMENT OF THE DRAFT
* SOLIDARITY WITH WOMEN, WITH LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL AND TRANS PEOPLE
* SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE MIDDLE EAST, ASIA, AFRICA, LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN WHO ARE RESISTING U.S. IMPERIALISM’S DRIVE TO OWN AND EXPLOIT THEM
* SOLIDARITY WITH ALL OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENTS
* A REBIRTH OF WORLDWIDE SOLIDARITY IS ESSENTIAL TO THE STRUGGLES AHEAD OF US

–NYC MILLION WORKER MARCH MOVEMENT AND THE TROOPS OUT NOW COALITION

Endorsers of Mayday Include:
New York City Labor Against The War
The International Action Center
National Immigrant Solidarity Network
Artist and Activists United For Peace
Brenda Stokely, President DC 1707 AFSCME
NYC Council Member Charles Barron
Chris Silvera, Secretary Treasurer Local 808 IBT/Chairperson, National Black Teamsters Caucus
New York City AIDS Housing Network
NY Coalition To Free Mumia Abu Jamal
New Jersey Solidarity – Activists for the Liberation of Palestine
Harlem Tenants Council
Korea Truth Commission
NISPOP (Network in Solidarity with the People of the Philippines)
Haiti Support Network
Queers For Peace and Justice
New York Committee To Free The Cuban 5
New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines
Al-Awda New York, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition
BAYAN-USA
Homeless Action For Necessary Development
DAMAYAN Migrant Workers Association
International Socialist Organization
Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST)
Jersey City Peace Movement
Monterey County Peace Coalition
New England Human Rights Organization for Haiti
People’s Solidarity for Social Progress
The Iraq Solidarity Campaign (UK)
No Draft No Way
Boston Stonewall Warriors
Womens Fightback Network, Boston
Workers World Party
Central New Jersey Coalition for Peace and Justice
Casa Freehold
Baltimore All Peoples Congress
People Judge Bush
Movement in Motion
SNAFU- Support Network for an Armed Forces Union
Steve Gillis, President, USWA Local 8751 Boston School Bus Union

4 Ways you can help:

1) Endorse the May 1 Rally at: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/may1endorse.html
2) Download flyers at: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/literature.html
3) Become a May 1 Organizing Center – sign up at: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/may1orgcentsignup.html
4) Donate at: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html

To find out more, go to http://www.troopsoutnow.org or call 212-633-6633