Will Bush Steal Iraq's Oil and Get Away With Both Hands Intact?

According to a CNN poll, half of the respondents say that the war in Iraq was worth it. The support for the war dropped by 8 points in just 10 days. With the Democrats putting up some feeble resistance to signing George Bush's request for $87 million, you can be sure that more negative attention will be headed his way. Bush may be making matters worse by taking his case to the United Nations tomorrow. Bush hopes to get out with his hands and his buddies contracts still attached. With no time-table for Iraqi self-rule and little in the way of power sharing with other nations, his prospects for getting the troop and cash commitments look pretty bad.
Now would be the time to contact world leaders and urge them to not support the US. How dare I say such a thing? As Simon Tisdall writes in the Guardian, doing everything that we can to discourage support for George's could further weaken him for the election-

" Why not let him stew and, by withholding cooperation, possibly hasten his electoral demise?
This is indeed tempting, for another four years of Bush in the White House is an unappealing prospect."

It is probably treason to say so, but another four years for Bush is a very real threat to our nation and the world.

On other fronts, Howard Dean, the long leading, anti-war, Democratic contender has been deposed from the top spot by Army General Wesley Clark. Clark is even leading Bush in the minds of the voters, signaling just how bad Bush's future looks. Clark initially came out as an anti-war candidate, but as time wears on and the strings become more noticeable, we can see what appears to be a completely manufactured candidate. The center-right Democratic Leadership Council is the force manipulating this marionette.

Indeed, something seemed a little fishy about an former army general who voted for both George Bush senior and Ronald Reagan becoming a liberal, anti-war candidate. Let's hope that this is a brief bounce caused by his newness.

September 11, a Day that the Ghosts of Allende and Biko warn against Empire and Terrorist Witch Hunts

September 11, 2001 will forever be known as a day of morning on which nearly 3000 people were killed by the horrendous act of a handful of religious fundamentalists. Many more innocents in Afghanistan and in Iraq have been crushed out in the wake. Optimistic estimates claim that no less than 9,118 (3000 Afghans and 6118 Iraqi civilians have been killed during the War on Terror. Since September 11, 2001 the nation has been unable to shake the cloud that darkened our shores on that fateful day. In the last two years Americans have seen nearly 3 million jobs evaporate while our debt continued to climb, we have seen our civil liberties endangered by the Patriot Act in the name of fighting terrorism and our national character has come into question in a war that points to new imperialism. September 11 carries with it a few specters that speak from the past.

The ghosts of Salvador Allende (June 26, 1908 – September 11, 1973) and Stephen bantu Biko (December 18, 1946 – September 11, 1977) warn about the imperialist adventures and open ended wars on terror from the grave.

Salvador Allende became the world's first democratically elected socialist President in September of 1970. As the President of the nation of Chile he signaled a hopeful departure for Chiles millions of impoverished citizens and a challenge that US President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger decided that they would not stand. The CIA began fertilizing the ground for the bloody coup that would follow three years later by destabilizing the economy and financially backing right-wing militants. Documents that have recently been declassified show that Henry Kissinger and the CIA decided that capitalist hegemony would have no equal, no matter what the cost. Economic imperialism became the legacy of the U.S. cast bullet that ripped through Salvador Allendes head on September 11, 1973. Democracy left Chile like so much of Allende's life blood.

The US backed dictator, Augusto Pinochet, would run a regime of torture and death and during his seventeen years in power 3,000 people were murdered. Pinochet would later react to the moral recoil to his indignities by the US government by staging the first major terrorist attack in our nation. In September of 1976, Pinochet's secret police would detonate a car bomb, blocks from the White House, and kill Orlando Letelier, and his assistant, Ronni Moffitt. Letelier and Moffitt were in the nation's capital to lobby for human rights and were well known as Pinochets biggest critics. The U.S. Government supported Pinochet until the late 1980's.

Once again it appears that human rights have become the victim of crass economic prerogatives of the White House. With no signs of WMDs and no signs of links to Terrorism ( the reasons given for the war by the White House), one can only morn our shameful role in the murder of Allende and thousands of Iraqis for imperial motives.

Steven Biko rose to national prominence as the founder of the Black People Convention in apartheid South Africa. As an early proponent of the Black Consciousness movement that boldly asserted that black people were equal to whites. Biko cast off the compromising, and comfortable liberal white establishment that fought for blacks while at the same time making the movement dependant on white generosity for advancement. Biko asserted that blacks (and all oppressed people) must realize and celebrate their own humanity in order to be liberated, and that to wait for the affirmation of the oppressor was, in itself, an act of disenfranchisement. These ideas ultimately put Biko and the government policy for black education, which, according to the Minister of Native (black) Affairs stated that: "Natives [blacks] must be taught from an early age that equality with Europeans [whites] is not for them," at ends with one another. Biko was banned, and forced to a strict regime of house arrest by the South African Government in 1973. His ideas that blacks were equal to whites were officially considered those of a "terrorist" by the apartheid government. In 1976, the Black People Convention organized a massive uprising to protest the unequal education opportunities of blacks. Stephen Biko was arrested four times under South African anti-terrorism legislation. During the last detention on September 11, 1977 Steven Biko was beaten to death by South African police forces while he was chained naked to a radiator. The U.S. Government supported the racist, apartheid South African Government until the mid-1980's.

During the last two years the neo-conservative cabal that took over our country in an elitist coup has had our democracy at the end of its repressive, fundamentalist gun, and our body politic withers, naked chained to the agenda of right-wing demagogues. All that remains to be seen is if the war on terror will beat the last vestiges of freedom from our land.

War on Terror is Proving a WMD for the American Economy: Iraq costs approaching Vietnam levels.

Blair and Bush appear to be in a bit of trouble. G. W.'s approval rating has dipped to it's lowest point in his residency, with the majority of respondants saying that they view his term in office as "fair or poor." Blair is in even worse shape. It appears that his comment last week, that had the WMD evidence been "sexed up" he would have resigned, was an act of pre-emptive grave digging. 54% of respondants in a recent poll say that they think Blair's tenure has been a disappointment, 20% think he should resign now and 43% think he should resign at the end of his term. The world waits to see if Tony will jump into the chasm he's dug.

George W. Bush requested an additional $87 billion for the occupation of Iraq. This is a considerable increase especially considering that the official end of hostilities was claimed months ago. Without accounting for the new request (you can bet that the congress will quickly roll over rubber stamp the check), the cost of the occupation since the official end of hostilities are almost identical to our average monthly cost during the Vietnam War. The average monthly cost of the Vietnam War (inflation adjusted dollars) was $5.15 Billion to the current $5 billion.
When it comes to empire, money is no object.

The New Labor Program



New unionism is here... again. In recent years we have witnessed a broad change in union tactics. The union lingo you hear uses phrases like: global unionism, culture of militancy, social movement unionism and constituency group organizing. These pro-active phrases demarcate a new trajectory for an ailing movement for worker rights. Them's fightin words.

Even though there is a new jargon, anyone familiar with labor and socialist history knows that the ideas of international solidarity, militancy, anti-racism, anti-homophobia, anti-ageism, and general social justice have been the war cry of unionists and socialists such as A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez. These ideas go way, way back, and these revered leaders were often shunned as radicals by their fellow comrades in the labor movement. After decades of union decline, the time for their message has finally come.

Labor is now fighting to change its dated image and conquer old stereotypes like the idea that it is an ol' boys club, unfriendly to minorities and women. Labor has placed a renewed emphasis on organizing the most marginalized groups in American society such as LGBTQ, women and minorities. Additionally, the AFL-CIO is giving these populations a space to address their issues within the union through "constituency organizations."

Constituency organizations like the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI), the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), Pride at Work, Asian Pacific America Labor Alliance (APALA) and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LACLAA) work within the organized labor matrix to advocate for reforms within the AFL-CIO and to be a voice for the unique struggles faced by their respective populations. Though several of these constituency organizations have been around for a while, they are taking on new importance in union strategy and you can expect to see this influence reflected in most major organizing drives.

The AFL-CIO, has also placed a renewed emphasis on grassroots organizing. After decades of spending massive resources on the top-down strategy of filling the coffers of politicians, following the lead of corporate America, the grassroots strategy fell by the way-side. The stage was set for this return to grassroots tactics with the growth of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and their 1990 victory in the Los Angeles Justice for Janitors campaign. This campaign utilized community organizing to dissuade strike breakers and scabs that have made low-wage organizing difficult. By building coalitions within the community and the churches of the workers who were trying to win union recognition, SEIU saw its membership nearly double to 1.1 million members in 10 years. Building on the model used by the Knights of Labor during the 19th century and by the United Farm Workers in the 1960's, SEIU surprised the top-down unionists with their victories. John Sweeney, the then President of SEIU, would take this strategy all the way to the top when he was elected as the President of the AFL-CIO in 1995.

From the perspective of a democratic socialist, this turn by organized labor toward a more progressive, more inclusive, broader-looking movement is very exciting. Despite the fact that the labor movement is still leaking membership, the future looks hopeful.

As evidence of this, the AFL-CIO, breaking with historical precedents, opposed the war in Iraq before the conflict "officially" began (one could reasonably date the beginning of the war to as far back as 1990). This was the correct moral stand to take. As time wears on and the proposed evidence of an Iraqi threat remains uncorroborated, the AFL-CIO's position appears to have been a smart evaluation of the facts - that this war was one more of political convenience than of major security concerns.

John Sweeney summed up this sentiment in October of 2002 when he said, "It appears to many of our members that the sudden urgency for a decision about war and peace, an urgency which did not exist a month ago, has as much to do with the political calendar as with the situation in Iraq. It is an apparent contradiction that there is no similar urgency to take action to address the economic crisis that is also inflicting immediate suffering on so many of our people."

Organized labor is taking big gambles with its moral and political capital. Taking a stand against the war could have caused a backlash by the many union members that supported George Bush's war. If nothing else, this act of social courage points to no possibility of a boom in union membership. Anti-war workers did not run out the next day and start union drives. The AFL-CIO's stand against the war was equal parts: opposition to an administration that had been vehemently anti-worker, sincere concern for the effects of war on the labor movement and finally, a risky, political gamble and act of social courage. The AFL-CIO has a few more chips to place on the table.

Earlier this year, the AFL-CIO announced the plans for a mass mobilization known as the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride. The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride was created to confront the October 2002 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that strips immigrant workers of virtually all rights as workers. The Hoffman Plastics v. National Labor Relations Board ruling was an attack on non-documented workers right to organize unions and to fight for back pay and other elementary rights. The Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, articulating the civil rights struggle of 1961, is bringing busloads of immigrant workers from all across the country for a day of lobbying in Washington D.C. on October 2 and for a mass mobilization of as many as 250,000 people on October 4 in Queens, New York. There is no sign of an immediate increase in union membership for the AFL-CIO, but in confronting the modern day slave situation that many immigrants in America face, organized labor is again doing the right thing.

In August of this year, Sweeney put another block in place that will further change the face of labor with the introduction of Working America. Working America is an initiative designed to organize and energize non-unionized workers, through neighborhood-based community organizing. Working America aims to both increase the support for workers' rights by involving laborers who are not unionized, but wish to support and aid unions in their efforts, as well as to create a channel for non-union workers to fight for their workplace issues. The long term strategy, the creation of a different culture that values collectivity and the essential right to organize, is a big risk that again may not ever increase union membership. The dividends of this approach will take long to be realized if they bear fruit at all, but it has the potential to deeply affect the future of the labor movement.

Working America approaches one of the biggest cultural barriers to union organizing in modern America. It approaches a confrontation with the base individualism that, in many ways, is at the root of the widespread sense of political disconnection and disempowerment that has defined the American populous for the last thirty years, during which we have seen civic participation decline in a parallel to union membership (a recent study has shown a .4% decrease in voter turn out for ever 1% decline in union membership).

Unions are now choosing to approach the fight differently. For decades, labor lawyers have been fighting anti-worker actions by employers through the National Labor Relations Act (NRLA), a component of the 1935 New Deal that was meant to help workers form unions. The NRLA has been used by big corporations over the last seventy years to erode the rights of workers and now labor has decided that wrangling over the murky provisions of the NRLA is a losing battle. As long as global mega-corporations can pour endless resources into teams of well paid lawyers, the fight over legalese is unlikely to produce meaningful gains. Actually, since the law was written in 1935, many unionists point out that the best case scenario will only return workers to 1935 levels of fairness and safety. The AFL-CIO is now placing this struggle in the sphere of human rights, where it belongs.

In a speech at the American Political Science Association in Philadelphia on August 30, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney spoke of workers rights as they relate to the First and Thirteenth Amendments of the Constitution. Unless we give up our freedoms at the time clock, then the right to assemble, speak about, join and form unions is a guaranteed right under the highest law of the land. The Thirteenth Amendment states that workers should not be forced into slavery or involuntary servitude. Organized labor points out that the threat of some disciplinary measures, including the threat of losing one's job for trying to organize a union, is a material threat that in a very real way forces workers into involuntary servitude without the representation of a democratic union. The act of framing our fight as one of human rights that were broadly framed in the Amendments to the US Constitution opens the horizon considerably. History shows that for every right fought for and gained by women and men, new conceptions of freedom arise. Therefore, the AFL-CIO's new rhetorical and strategic framing of worker rights issues noticeably expands the possibility of the struggle.

To fight this new struggle, the AFL-CIO has joined with Jobs with Justice, a National community-based organization that is in essence a democratic socialist project uniting community, civil rights and labor fights. The AFL-CIO and Jobs with Justice have together called for nation-wide demonstrations on December 10 (International Human Rights Day) to call attention to root of unionism: human rights.
The AFL-CIO is also concentrating on global solidarity this November when it faces down the FTAA Ministerial with a mass demonstration in Miami, Florida, the city that hopes to host the headquarters for the hemispheric trade agreement. The AFL-CIO and its partners like Jobs with Justice will highlight the fact that the FTAA predecessor, NAFTA, has brought more harm than good to workers and the environment since its passage in 2002. The AFL-CIO is also lobbying Congress to support the policies of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose pro-labor, pro-socialist platform brought voters to the polls in internationally record breaking numbers. Additionally, the AFL-CIO has had several meetings with Mexican President Vicente Fox as it gears up for the Immigrant Worker Freedom Rides.

The AFL-CIO is returning to the tactics that made it a vital venue for the struggle of human rights by organizing and fighting for low-wage workers, workers inside and outside of unions, and workers both north and south of the US border with Mexico, as well as for the concerns of women and minorities. The AFL-CIO is taking on global trade agreements and fighting for the rights of workers world-wide. It is exciting and exhilarating to come into the labor movement at this crucial time in our history. The forces of elitism and fascism are changing our world at the behest of the majority of the world's people and I am proud to be among those who counter the reactionary onslaught. Democratic socialists will continue to lend vision and urgency to this fight. In the words of an old Irish toast, "Never above you, never below you, always beside you!"