Dan La Botz, a 64-year old Cincinnati school teacher, has filed petitions with the Ohio Secretary of State to become the candidate of the Socialist Party for the U.S. Senate. La Botz, who needed 500 signatures to get on the Socialist Party primary ballot, filed petitions with approximately 1,200 signatures on Thursday, Feb. 18. La Botz, a long time labor and social movement activist, is the candidate of the Socialist Party of Ohio which is the state organization of the Socialist Party USA.

Speaking in Columbus after turning in his petitions, La Botz said, “I believe we need an alternative to the Republican and Democratic Parties. We have to stop the banks and corporations from controlling our political system. We must stop the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. We must bring our citizens single-payer health care. We must confront the environmental crisis, rejecting coal, petroleum and nuclear energy and prioritizing solar and other green solutions. We must create jobs for all at living wages. When private enterprise fails the government must step in to become the employer of last resort.”

La Botz said he sees a growing, though still embryonic movement for social change, a movement to which his Socialist candidacy will speak. “We can see the growing frustration, alienation and discontent with our political system. We see it in the Tea-Baggers. We see it in the demonstrations for immigrant rights. We see it in workers voting against contract concessions that give away wages and health plans. We see it in the LGBTQ movement for gay and lesbian marriage rights. People want an alternative, and that alternative is the idea of a democratic socialist society with health care, education, housing, and jobs and justice for all.”

Rejecting arguments that a third party cannot win and cannot have an impact, La Botz pointed out that given the political deadlock in Washington, one Senator in the U.S. Congress from a third party could exert enormous leverage on the political process. “But,” he said, “my job will be to inspire people to fight back not only politically, but by fighting for secure jobs, higher wages and health care, resisting attempts to foreclose on and seize their homes, and demanding free public higher education such as many states had in the 1960s. We need a political movement that is the expression of a social movement.“

“Working people make the country run,” said La Botz. “And working people—not the banks, corporations, and politicians—should run the country.”

Ohio once had a history as a Socialist Party stronghold, with Socialists elected by their labor union and working class constituencies to lead city government in Dayton, Hamilton, and other Ohio cities and towns. During the twentieth century railroad union leader Eugene V. Debs in the 1910s and 20s and former Presbyterian minister Norman Thomas in the 1930s and 1940s served as the presidential candidates of the Socialist Party.

by Billy Wharton and Nicholas Nix

February 18, 2010 - As democratic socialists, we condemn the act of terrorism carried out by Joseph Andrew Stack today in Austin, Texas. Terrorism will do nothing to solve the mounting social and economic problems faced by working people in the United States. Instead, such acts will likely create public sympathy for government agencies, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security, who wish to further erode our civil liberties. As an old anarchist pamphlet correctly states, “Terrorism destroys politics.”

While condemning this act, we also recognize that some of the grievances raised in Stack’s suicide letter speak to real problems faced by millions of working people every day. In the more coherent sections of the letter, he mentions the failure of the US government to provide healthcare, the gross inequity of the bank bailout and the inadequacy of support for elderly Americans. He details the plight of the elderly widow of a steel worker who is reduced to eating cat food because of the elimination of pension payments. It is difficult not to be moved to anger by this story.

Similar stories of abuse and neglect exist throughout the US today. This is not a surprise considering we live in a society where 5% of the population controls 85% of the wealth. Consequently, one child out of every six faces issues of food insecurity and almost 50 million people have been left outside the healthcare system. All of these conditions are direct results of capitalism.

Democratic socialism, and not individual terrorism, is the humane alternative to the madness of capitalism. Socialist economics propose worker self-management, participatory budgeting and guaranteed rights to healthcare and housing. Such changes are built upon socialist values of solidarity, compassion and justice.

Acts of terrorism will not move us closer to solving our problems – a grassroots political response to injustice will. What we need most in this country is a political movement that gives a voice to working people. Such a re-awakening will allow us to become active creators of a more progressive future. Organizations, such as the one we are members of, the Socialist Party USA, are working to build such movements and are open to all those seeking to struggle for justice.

***
Billy Wharton, co-chair of the Socialist Party USA (*)
Nicholas Nix, Independent for Congress, District 4 of Texas (*)

* for identification purposes only

As part of a campaign to slash state budgets, the Los Angeles school board is proposing to sell public schools to privately owned education corporations (outside operators). United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) estimates that up to 250 schools could be sold. UTLA is making a unique counter-proposal that pairs a form of worker self-management with community input - site-driven decision making. Below is a statement by UTLA in response to the proposal to privatize the schools.

from United Teachers Los Angeles

February 9, 2010 - Results of the LAUSD Public School Choice advisory votes were released today, and parents, students, staff, and community members overwhelmingly chose the school plans developed by local teachers, parents, and LAUSD staff over proposals by outside groups.

The local school plans won every vote of parents, students, and staff, and all but four of the community votes. Overall, 87% of parents voted for the local school plans over the outside plans. (Results are posted at lausd.net.) The votes are advisory, but together they clearly are a community mandate for the local plans. The School Board will make the final decisions on who will run the 30 Public School Choice schools on February 23.

Statement from UTLA President A.J. Duffy:
The votes are in, and the verdict is clear: Parents want teachers to drive change at their schools, not outside organizations. Overwhelmingly, parents, students, and community members picked the customized proposals developed by local teachers who know the students best. The results are even more impressive considering the process was heavily tilted in favor of charter groups, which paid for fleets of buses to ferry people to the polls.

Clearly this is a mandate for bottom-up, collaboratively developed school plans and against giving away schools to outside operators. When making the final decision on who will run these schools, LAUSD Superintendent Cortines and the School Board must listen to the parents and respect their choice, regardless of political pressure from outside operators.

UTLA strongly supports the democratic process to give parents and community members a voice in the future of our schools. This was truly a victory of substance over style. Our teachers did not have teams of specialists and reams of slick handouts like the charter organizations, but they had something much more important: comprehensive plans for academic improvement that address all students’ needs from A to Z.

These votes are the most important endorsement of all, because they come from parents, the teachers’ true partners in educating students. We will continue to build on this partnership to improve our schools.

Six Truths About the School Change and Giveaway Motion

Flyer for the Decision Day Protests

This video from last year documents a similar process of union-busting and privatization underway in Chicago:

by Doug Henwood
from LBO Notes


More nuggets from Obama’s interview with the freshly renamed Bloomberg BusinessWeek, now under new management.

The irony is, is that on the left we are perceived as being in the pockets of big business; and then on the business side, we are perceived as being anti-business…. You would be hard-pressed to identify a piece of legislation that we have proposed out there that, net, is not good for businesses…. We are pro-growth. We are fierce advocates for a thriving, dynamic free market.

Some scene-setting from the piece:

As Obama defended himself against charges he is isolated from business, a number of CEOs sat outside in the West Wing lobby: General Electric Co.’s Jeffrey Immelt and Honeywell International Inc.’s David Cote were among those waiting for a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and energy coordinator Carol Browner to discuss climate-change policy.

In a separate story, Bloomberg reports that the CEO that Obama most admires is Frederick Smith of FedEx. Smith is a fiendishly anti-union Republican who served as John McCain’s finance chair, and is an old Skull & Bones pal of George W. Bush.

FDR said, maybe not entirely honestly, of the American rich, “I welcome their hatred.” Obama will do or say anything so that they’ll return his love—which, despite all his efforts, isn’t yet forthcoming.

from Weekly News Update

A heavy rain fell on Port-au-Prince for about a half hour in the early morning of Feb. 11, drenching the estimated 1.1 million people who have been sleeping outdoors or in improvised shelters since a magnitude 7.0 earthquake destroyed or seriously damaged their homes on Jan. 12. This was the first heavy rain in Haiti’s capital and the surrounding area since the quake, which occurred during the dry season. More frequent rainstorms may come as early as March, and medical experts warn of a great increase in disease if better shelters aren’t constructed in time. Relief agencies say 22,000 tents have been distributed and another 50,000 are slated to be brought into the country; the Haitian official in charge of temporary shelter, Charles Clermont, said on Feb. 11 that he expected 400,000 tarps by Feb. 20. International institutions estimate that there are 310 spontaneous encampments in the Port-au-Prince area.

By around 6 am on Feb. 11 many residents had joined demonstrations denouncing the government of President René Préval for its failures in organizing relief. Préval “sleeps peacefully while the people are soaked,” they chanted. (Haiti Press Network 2/11/10; AlterPresse (Haiti) 2/11/10; Radio Métropole (Haiti) 2/11/10; Le Devoir (Montreal) 2/12/10, some from AFP) [Problems with food distribution provoked similar protests during the two weeks before; see Update #1021].

In at least one encampment, people have responded to lack of effective measures by the government and the relief agencies by “looking out for themselves,” according to the Associated Press wire service. Residents in a dry riverbed in the Marassa neighborhood, not far from the Toussaint Louverture International Airport in the north of the capital, have organized themselves into two communities. Each community has a security committee which watches out for the residents and even issues them ID tickets. (AP 2/11/10)

Although it is not clear from press reports how many communities have formed such committees, in a Feb. 7 statement the leftist labor organizing group Batay Ouvriye (Workers’ Struggle) called for the creation of more. Area residents should organize “autonomous committees to receive [the] aid and distribute it in the most effective manner,” the group advised. “The committees should build coordination between themselves, in a dynamic manner.” According to the statement, the failures of the government and the international community demonstrate once again that “[i]f we want to realize our own interests, we have no other choice--we need another state. We need our own state.” (Adital (Brazil) 2/11/10); BO statement 2/7/10 (in English, in Spanish))

On Feb. 11 the Metal Workers Union of São José dos Campos and the Region, an industrial center in Brazil’s São Paulo state, announced that the General Motors workers there had agreed to donate 1% of their pay to Batay Ouvriye. Other metal workers in the area have also donated: all together, more than 10,000 of the union’s members have given a total of about 380,000 reais ($204,740). “This money will be put directly into the hands of the workers,” union president Vivaldo Moreira Araújo said. “We’re not going to give anything to military troops or to the government. This is class solidarity to help the Haitian people reorganize themselves and reconstruct a free nation without imperialist occupation.” (Sindicato dos Metalurgicos de São José dos Campos e Região website 2/11/10)

from The Film Forum

Born February 22, 1900 in Calanda, Spain, the son of well-to-do landowners, he was educated by Jesuit priests, then went to the University of Madrid, where he befriended Salvador Dali, Garcia Lorca and other future Spanish intellectuals. In 1925 he went to Paris, was accepted as a student at the Académie du Cinéma, and within a year was assigned as assistant director to Jean Epstein on the film Mauprat. In 1927 he was Mario Nalpas' assistant on La Siréne des Tropiques, starring Josephine Baker, and the following year was back with Epstein, working on La Chute de la Maison Usher.

During a three-day exchange of fantasies and dreams, Buñuel and Dali wrote a script for a surrealist film, which the former shot in two weeks with assistance from Dali. The resulting 24-minute film, Un Chien Andalou, consisted of a series of unrelated and unexplainable images, the only unifying element of which was in their power to shock. The film was enthusiastically received in a special screening before a gathering of Paris surrealists, who accepted Buñuel and Dali in their ranks. It is still widely shown in film societies and at universities.

In 1930, Buñuel directed his surrealist masterpiece, L'Age d'Or, in which he laid the ideological foundation for much of his subsequent work. His savage assaults on the Church, the Establishment, middle-class morality, first launched in this film, were to become for him an obsessive mission for many years to come. Dali was again to collaborate on the script, but the two young Spaniards parted ways after only a day or two of exchange of ideas. Dali's name remained in the screen credits, however. Buñuel's next film, Las Hurdes (1932), was a horrifying documentary account, surrealistically flavored, of the plight of village peasants, hopelessly enchained by their poverty and ignorance. As it turned out, this was his last film for many years.

by Rick Wolff
from MRZine

The stunning win of a Republican novice in the Massachusetts Senate race to replace Ted Kennedy is well known. It is being interpreted as a sign of Obama's fading popularity and also as a sign that the US electorate wants more right-of-center policy. To show the flaw in thinking that right-wing answers to the economic crisis are the only popular option, consider the results of the January 26, 2010 referendum in Oregon.

That referendum's 1.2 million voters decisively passed Measures 66 and 67 by margins of over 53 to 46. Briefly, those measures explicitly protected state outlays for education, medical care, and public safety over the next two years by raising over $700 million in additional taxes on corporations and on wealthy individuals. The passage of those measures proves that a left of center coalition -- one that actually does the sorts of things that Obama promised in his campaign -- can garner mass support and win elections. But it proves more as well.

A somewhat left-of-center Democratic Party leadership had passed equivalent bills in the Oregon legislature in 2009. Business and conservative groups mobilized into and heavily funded Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes to campaign for a referendum that would undo the legislation. The support for a yes vote in the referendum -- essentially endorsing the bills passed in the legislature -- was mobilized by unions, teachers' and parents' groups, organizations concerned about sustaining medical and other public services. Their coalition with the Democratic party leadership prevailed.

Income taxes on corporations will now be raised in Oregon from a minimum of $10 per year per corporation (yes, that is not a misprint) to $150 per year. The original $10 minimum had been set by the Oregon legislature during the Great depression and never changed. Income tax rates will go up a few points on households earning over $250,000 per year and a few more points on households earning over $500,000 annually. Those rates had also not been changed since the 1930s. In effect, Oregonians voted to preserve basic social services by taxing corporations and the richest minority of their citizens by modest extra amounts on the grounds of their greater capacity to pay.

According to The Oregonian, the opponents of these new taxes spent $4.6 million while supporters spent $6.9 million on the referendum. That suggests funding resources for such initiatives as well.
One obvious lesson from this referendum is that a left-of-center program responding to the economic crisis is a serious political proposition with the capacity to win now. More interesting is another lesson implicit in the first. The referendum endorsed the notion that the burden of state programs benefitting the mass of people directly and everyone else indirectly ought to fall disproportionally onto two groups: those most able to pay and those who have been underpaying for a long time. The campaign around the referendum effectively exposed that these were largely the same people and corporations. Maybe now other ways to implement the notion of taxing those most able to pay and using the funds creatively to deal with the economic crisis will emerge. Consider two examples.

The inequality of wealth holding in Oregon (and across the nation) is greater than the inequality of income. Indeed, the very wealthiest Oregonians hold the bulk of their wealth in the form of stocks and bonds. That form of wealth is not taxed by any level of government in Oregon nor by the US government. Wealth held in other forms -- such as land, homes, and businesses -- is taxed by localities in Oregon and elsewhere. Land, homes, and businesses are the forms of wealth owned by large portions of the population.

The people of Oregon would have done more to bring fairness to the tax structure of their state and the country had they taxed large holdings of stocks and bonds (perhaps exempting retirement or savings accounts up to a certain level, etc.). Taxing wealth in the "intangible" form of stocks and bonds is not only a long overdue correction of a basic tax injustice. It also taxes just those who gained most in the period from 1980 to 2000 when the stock market -- and thus the values of their stocks and bonds -- rose dramatically. Those years were also the time when the average real wages of American (and Oregonian) workers -- those who own land and homes if they own anything -- did not rise at all.

Oregon's December 2009, unemployment rate was 11 per cent, above the national average. If you add those Oregonians who have part-time but want full-time jobs and those unemployed who have stopped looking for work, the total number is more like 17 or 18 per cent. Nearly every Oregon family likely has someone close -- a relative, a friend, a neighbor -- in that situation. Everyone is affected by it. A small extra tax imposed on those most able to pay would affect them minimally, but it could provide a large fund to provide start-up cash for unemployed people seeking to form new business ventures. Here's how it might work: only unemployed could work in such new businesses (thereby maximizing the employment impact). They would form, work in, and run these businesses. They would be their own board of directors (thereby maximizing the range of skills such ex-unemployed could acquire). Once such new businesses earn profits, a portion of those profits would have to go to repaying the start-up cash they received so other unemployed can use it in the same way. Existing businesses, unions, churches, and community groups could all assist such new businesses with the state of Oregon matching that support dollar for dollar.

These are but examples of creative ways to respond to the economic crisis and to make positive changes in the lives of those most damaged by it. If people can get out of the mental straight-jacket of thinking that "the government has no money" to do things or that nothing new or creative can be done, they can generate many more new programs. The money for government programs is there if and when people challenge the ruling conservative wisdom that only thinks in terms of more or less taxes instead of thinking about who can and should pay the taxes that are now so desperately needed and might accomplish so much. In a small but significant step, Oregon's referendum moves in that direction.

***
Rick Wolff is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and also a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University in New York. He is the author of New Departures in Marxian Theory (Routledge, 2006) among many other publications. Check out Rick Wolff’s documentary film on the current economic crisis, Capitalism Hits the Fan. Visit Wolff's Web site, and order a copy of his new book Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do about It.

by Nicholas Paul Nix

My name is Nicholas Paul Nix and I am running as an Independent Candidate for Congress in Texas’ 4th District of the United States House of Representatives. Texas’ 4th District is located in the northeast corner of Texas. My district, and Texas as a whole, is known as one of the Reddest of Red States and not at all for the right reasons!

I want to run as a Socialist Party-USA candidate, but we would need 43,991 signatures to get on the ballot. So, instead, we opted for the 500 signatures that an Independent Candidate needs to get on the ballot. However, the Socialist Party of Texas will still try to get the needed 43,991 signatures so that it may get on the general election ballot as a party; If that succeeds, I will have my name placed for the Texas Socialist Party nomination as Governor. Since this is an unlikely outcome, almost all of my effort is being spent on getting on the ballot as an Independent Nominee for Congress in November.

When I started my race, I had a few concerns about running for Congress as an open democratic socialist in a state that is considered by most a Republican stronghold. I was worried that generations of pro-business propaganda, which permeates throughout the United States, would be too difficult to overcome and that I would be targeted for pro-capitalist generated hatred. However, many of these one-time Republicans are opposed to both parties. On the day I formed my bank account for the campaign, a man in his 80’s who overheard I was running told me, "you know there is a movement of people that just want to vote everyone out." At first, I thought he was talking about the Tea Baggers, but later I found that most people, even some former Republicans, think the Tea Baggers do not represent their interests.

Really, I should have known that there would not be a lot of hatred towards a socialist candidate, because I regularly fly the red flag from my 25’ flagpole and I have never had a problem with anyone. Most people’s real concerns are basic and involve keeping a job, a house, a car, and being able to provide for their families. While it is difficult to get past years of propaganda that has placed capitalism in a more important role than democracy, it is not completely impossible to reach people through socialism.

I learned early on in this campaign that the best way to approach this situation is to look towards people’s sense of what is right and wrong. Once you get past the demonization of words like “socialism,” you find common agreements. If you breakdown socialism and explain it to people, they tend to see the fairness in it for all parties concerned. When you do the same for capitalism they tend to see the injustice and unfairness of the system.

People have gotten used to expressions like "what is best for business is best for the US" and "that business can always do the job better than government,” but after our most recent economic crisis, people are more open to doubt such pro-business rhetoric. I often talk about how water is our most scarce resource, yet the government is able to make it one of our cheapest utilities. Imagine if Exxon-Mobil controlled your water like it does oil. Who would make it cheaper, business or government? Questions like that are simple and yet they challenge people’s long held beliefs.

My goal in the campaign is to present my long-held socialist beliefs in a clear way to my local audience. My website expresses my most essential beliefs, especially regarding democracy in the work place and economy, rights of immigrants, rights of the LGBT community, rights of women, health care, the legalization of marijuana and prostitution, and the end of US involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So I invite you to visit my website and send me your opinions, but please understand where I am coming from and what I have to over come. My campaign aims to turn Texas from a “red-state” to “red” one person at a time.

In honorable memory of Howard Zinn

1922 - 2010

historian, playwright, social activist
Boston University Professor Emeritus
author of Marx in Soho and
A People’s History of the United States

your contribution to our lives and our struggle will live on

Courtesy of the Socialist Party of Boston

by Billy Wharton

This week, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg came face-to-face with a thoroughly frightening notion. What if the numbers do not work? What if the reality that people in our city live in cannot be reduced to a neat series of computations? The crime stats from the Giuliani regime, it seems, may have been cooked. Several high-raking police officials now admit that they distorted crime statistics in order meet the desired outcomes of City Hall.

The key selling point of “Giuliani-time” was its law-and-order message. The administration marketed the idea that they would modernize the New York City Police Department (NYPD) by installing a computerized system called CompStat that would track crime statistics and suggests areas for police concentration. Job evaluations of high and middle ranking police officials would depend on their ability to reduce crime statistics.

Operating behind CompStat was the philosophy of criminology favored by the Giuliani administration – the “broken-windows theory.” Broken-windows argued for placing more police attention on small-scale crimes as a means to identify more serious patterns of criminality. In addition to a police strategy, this philosophy called for the creation of new forms of community organization – such as youth community centers, job-training and educational support programs – to act as poles of attraction away from criminal enterprises.

Giuliani implemented the first part of the philosophy by initiating a crackdown on “quality of life crimes” and flooding communities of color with the NYPD. Not surprisingly, given his conservative credentials and blatant disregard for the demands of particularly the African-American community, he never delivered on the community organizing end of broken-windows. The result was a series of tragic police shootings of innocent civilians, whole-scale community occupations and the daily violation of civil liberties through policies such as the notorious “stop-and-frisk” program.

All along these harsh tactics were sold to New Yorkers necessary parts of the rapid reduction in crime statistics. Bloomberg has continued these trends, albeit with a less overtly racist presentation. But, now that an independent study had proven that these numbers are false – merely the products of NYPD officials looking to keep their jobs – where does it leave New York?

Whether it is policing or educational testing, political policy cannot be made by numbers alone. And statistics cannot be used to justify the level of violence that was unleashed on African-American and Latino communities in this city in the 1990s. The names of the victims remain with us – Baez, Diallo, Dorismond, Louima and many more – and so to do the policing strategies that produced them.

Bloomberg now has a serious problem – his numbers don’t work. Now is the time for New Yorkers to stop acting like statistics and transform our city into a more human place, a place where the development of each of us is enhanced by the development of all. No set of numbers can capture the wonderful possibilities of a city designed to support human needs instead of one focused on meeting crime stat quotas or minimum test scores.

***
Billy Wharton is the co-chair of the Socialist Party USA

by Bill Quigley
from Common Dreams

890 million. Amount of international debt that Haiti owes creditors. Finance ministers from developing countries announced they will forgive $290 million. Source: Wall Street Journal

644 million. Donations for Haiti to private organizations have exceed $644 million. Over $200 million has gone to the Red Cross, who had 15 people working on health projects in Haiti before the earthquake. About $40 million has gone to Partners in Health, which had 5,000 people working on health in Haiti before the quake. Source: New York Times.

1 million. People still homeless or needing shelter in Haiti. Source: MSNBC.

1 million. People who have been given food by the UN World Food Program in Port au Prince – another million in Port au Prince still need help. Source: UN World Food Program.

300,000. People injured in the earthquake, reported by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. Source: CNN.

212,000. People reported killed by earthquake by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. Source: CNN..

63,000. There are 63,000 pregnant women among the people displaced by the earthquake. 7,000 women will deliver their children each month. Source: UN Populations Fund.

17,000. Number of United States troops stationed on or off coast in Haiti, down from a high of 22,000. Source: AFP.

9,000. United Nations troops in Haiti. Source: Miami Herald.

7,000. Number of tents distributed by United Nations. Miami Herald. President Preval of Haiti has asked for 200,000 tents. Source: Reuters.

4,000. Number of amputations performed in Haiti since the earthquake. Source: AFP.

900. Number of latrines that have been dug for the people displaced from their homes. Another 950,000 people still need sanitation. Source: New York Times.

75. An hourly wage of 75 cents per hour is paid by the United Nations Development Program to people in Haiti who have been hired to help in the clean up. The UNDP is paying 30,000 people to help clean up Haiti, 180 Haitian Gourdes ($4.47) for six hours of work. The program hopes to hire 100,000 people. Source: United Nations News Briefing.

1.25. The U.S. is pledged to spend as much as $379 million in Haitian relief. This is about $1.25 for each person in the United States. Source: Canadian Press.

1. For every one dollar of U.S. aid to Haiti, 42 cents is for disaster assistance, 33 cents is for the U.S. military, 9 cents is for food, 9 cents is to transport the food, 5 cents to pay Haitians to help with recovery effort, 1 cent is for the Haitian government and ½ a cent is for the government of the Dominican Republic. Source: Associated Press.

***
Bill has visited Haiti numerous times working for human rights. He is legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. His email is quigley77(at)gmail.com

Dear Editor,


Thank you for presenting Zelig Stern’s article concerning the practical and ethical arguments for extending democracy to the workplace. The evidence Zelig provides concerning the success of Argentinean and Spanish cooperatives demonstrates the business advantages that democratic workplaces offer. My experience as a business analyst and project manager suggests that both business owners and managers are more than aware of the advantages of empowering their work force.

In a January 2010 news release from TNS-US, a global market information and insight group, American workers’ current job satisfaction level is at its lowest in two decades. TNS found that, “only 45 percent of those surveyed say they are satisfied with their jobs, down from 61.1 percent in 1987...” Managers are aware of the positive correlation between employee job satisfaction and productivity. They understand from practical experience that productivity increases when management respects workers’ expertise, allows worker independence when executing work tasks, and allows workers a meaningful role in the creation and maintenance of work processes. Employee satisfaction data from 2009 compiled by the Society for Resource Management indicates that below job security, pay, and benefits, having a respectful relationship with immediate supervisors (52%) and autonomy and independence (47%) are among the most significant contributors to job satisfaction.

Given the almost unbridled expansion of corporate power in the workplace, it is not surprising that job satisfaction is low. The current hierarchical power structure of most American businesses serves only to guarantee the personal wealth of owners and stockholders. It does nothing to provide worker empowerment that leads to higher job satisfaction and with it long-term productivity.

A study by Amy E. Knaup (“Survival and longevity in the Business Employment Dynamics Data”, Monthly Labor Review, 2005) indicates that only forty-four percent of businesses established in March 1992 survived beyond 1996. The study also reveals that survival rates do not vary much by industry. In addition, Knaup’s study reminds us that workforce retention levels represent a significant predictor of increased business longevity. Many business-management experts identify bad management practices and poor business planning as the primary causes of business failure. (That is right; it is not the cost of group health insurance, union demands, business taxes, or the subterfuges of “the socialists.”) Businesses fail because bosses seek short-term profits while ignoring effective long-term planning and process improvement, and do even worse when bosses ignore the human needs of their workforce.

Sophisticated quality and business-process management technology is currently available. This technology is powerful and proven, but does require commitment throughout the enterprise to be successful. It is likely to fail when bosses and managers place short-term profit ahead of long-term process improvement. None of this technology requires a top-down power structure. It does require, of course, the specialized expertise of such professionals as process managers, quality control professionals, and highly principled accountants. However, a need for operational control and improvement resources is not coextensive with a need for power to be concentrated in the hands of a few bosses. Bosses are not required and their personal goals are often at odds with proven practices that can achieve long-term business success.

To assert "...workers are not smart enough to know how to run a business..." is an absurdity on stilts. The American workforce is highly experienced, skilled, and dedicated; and is capable of operating successful businesses, however complex. A skillful application of modern business and quality management practices utilizing the risk mitigation provided by democratically distributed business process control and improvement management represents the most effective and efficient way to increase the likelihood of business success. Doing so will effectively reduce an enterprise’s exposure to the kind of risky leadership behavior that currently causes the majority of business failures in the US.

James Marra
Secretary to the Editorial Board of The Socialist
Secretary to the Connecticut Local of the SPUSA
Jmarra02(at)snet.net

from Wikipedia

Samuel "Magic Sam" Gene Maghett (February 14, 1937 – December 1, 1969) was an American blues musician. Maghett was born in Grenada, Mississippi and learned to play the blues from listening to records by Muddy Waters and Little Walter.

After moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1950, his guitar playing earned bookings at blues clubs in Chicago's West Side. Sam recorded for the Cobra label from 1957 to 1959, recording singles, including "All Your Love" and "Easy Baby". They never appeared on the charts yet they had a profound influence, far beyond Chicago's guitarists and singers. Together with the records of Otis Rush (also a Cobra artist) and Buddy Guy, they made a manifesto for a new kind of blues. Around this time Sam also worked briefly with Homesick James Williamson. Sam gained a following before being drafted into the Army. Not a natural soldier, Sam deserted after a couple of weeks' service and was subsequently caught and sentenced to six months imprisonment. He was given a dishonourable discharge on release, but the experience had undermined his confidence and immediate recordings for Mel London's Chief Records lacked the purpose of their predecessors.

In 1963, he gained national attention for his single "Feelin' Good (We're Gonna Boogie)". After successful touring of the United States, UK and Germany, he was signed to Delmark Records in 1967, where he recorded West Side Soul and Black Magic. He also continued performing live and toured with blues harp player, Charlie Musselwhite.

Sam's breakthrough performance was at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1969, which won him many bookings in the United States and Europe. His life and career was cut short when he suddenly died of a heart attack in December of the same year. He was 32 years old. He was buried in the Restvale Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.

by Socialist Party USA POCC

February is Black History Month. It's a time when our public institutions, and corporations give a little extra attention to the accomplishments and contributions to the story of the Americas made by Black Americans. Established by Carter G Woodson in 1926, it's purpose was to promote the contributions made by Black Americans in an effort to undo the contention that Black people have no history, and have made no significant contributions to the history of the Americas.

Since 1926 this project has come along way. What started as a one week remembrance of Black American accomplishments has become an entire month. As a child Black History Month began and ended with the ring of the school bell. By the mid 90's McDonalds (if only on BET) began crafting ads for fast food to coincide with the month of February. If we weren't yet recognized as key players in the American experience, our spending power certainly was. As with all things in our country whatever can be turned into a commodity will be turned into a commodity.

The Socialist Party USA is pleased to recognize and celebrate February as Black History month. As socialists we recognize the central role in American, and global history that African peoples occupy. You cannot address the history of religion, science, art, or the study of history itself without beginning with the story of the African. For socialists it is also important to move the stories of Black people out of it's box in February and into the larger narrative of American History in order to reconstruct a story of the Americas as seen and experienced from the people on the bottom.

There can be no legitimate account of American history that distinguishes between it's peoples contributions based on the color of their skin.

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For more information on the POCC contact Erik Toren - ectoren(at)sbcglobal.net

by David McReynolds
from Edge Left

I was at a meeting of the New York War Resisters League tonight when, mid-way through the meeting, Frida Berrigan broke into the agenda to say that she hated to relay the news, but she had just gotten text message that Howard Zinn, that great historian of the struggles of the American people, had died of a heart attack at 87. Howard Zinn not only spoke and wrote for the best of America, he reminded those of us who are radicals, members of the broad left, that the history of America is not only that of oppression and corruption, but of resistance, struggle and affirmation. He has left us with a legacy of work that was based on a study of the real and often hidden history of this country, of women, of labor, of racial minorities, who in fact shaped the best of this country and gave us a sense that our struggle in this desperate time will not be defeated. Yes, we have lost a good and honest soul. But more than most, he would hope we would remember Joe
Hill's words: "Don't mourn – organize."

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by Billy Wharton, co-chair Socialist Party USA

The death of Howard Zinn is a great loss to socialists across the world. Zinn’s life work as a people’s historian offered a shining example of scholarship with relevance for everyday life. Equally important, was the joyous life energy he exuded while supporting a wide variety of progressive causes. When called to speak at marches, teach-ins and rallies Howard Zinn would appear – armed only with the powerful message that when regular people struggle for justice, something good might happen. Zinn’s death is a call for new people to push forward his project to create a world based on solidarity, compassion and justice. We will miss you Howard Zinn and we will advance the struggle in your name.

by Billy Wharton
from Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal

From the start, Barack Obama’s presidency has seemed like one big public relations campaign. Tonight’s State of the Union address did little to dissuade one from this view. Sagging under the weight of depressed dreams of hope and change, he desperately needed to appear as though he was doing something to address the growing needs of the American people. Emphasis on the “appearances,” since Obama’s speech delivered more of the same from his first year in office – high rhetoric with little substance.

The clear emphasis of the speech was the American economy. This was a double-edged sword. In the first part, Obama presented his bank bailout as an unpopular, but necessary measure – “We all hated the bank bailout…I hated it…I promised I wouldn’t just do what was popular, I would do what is necessary.” Yet, brushing off the bailout as a necessary evil misses important points. First, the economic crisis created a historic opportunity to create a banking system that could serve the American people. Placing these failed institutions into public control might have allowed for the creation of a highly regulated public banking sector. Second, the more than $700 billion in tax payer funds was employed by the banks as insurance for further speculation. It might have been better used on a real domestic stimulus plan that addressed the needs of working people. The financial system continues to fail the American people – the small businesses,
homeowners and working people – yet all Obama proposes is a few new bank fees. We need a financial system that works for people not for profit.

This leads into the second part of his domestic economic agenda. “Families,” Obama argued, “are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The Federal government should do the same.” The President’s further comments on deficit reduction – including a three year freeze in discretionary spending – signal an important shift from stimulus programs – albeit in favor of large corporations and banks – to austerity programs. The Socialist Party USA believes in the need to resist these cutbacks whether they occur at the federal, state or local levels. We need to build a movement to defend public programs. They should be expanded not cut back.

Despite the call for cuts, Obama pledged to maintain funding for national security, including a military budget that remains a major drain on the American economy. Estimates of the military’s share in the budget – including payments for current and past wars – amounts to nearly 51% of annual budget expenditures or nearly $1.2 trillion in tax funds. These tax payers’ funds could be more productively put to work in the domestic economy to create jobs, provide healthcare and fund poverty relief or internationally to advance a peace agenda. This is why the Socialist Party USA calls for an immediate 50% reduction in the military budget.

Austerity programs and budget freezing give the impression that the economic crisis has ended. Yet millions still suffer from unemployment as a result of the greatest crisis in capitalism since the 1930s. Obama referenced the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) U-3 unemployment number of 10%. However, the more comprehensive U-6 figure released by the BLS that counts the discouraged and underemployed has risen to 17.3%. That is why the Socialist Party USA supports the creation of a Full Employment Policy that offers the public sector as a means to create employment for all who wish to work.

Similarly, President Obama has dropped the ball on healthcare reform. The more than 2,000 page legislation he supports in the House and Senate has been shaped by major health insurers and pharmaceutical companies. Though he decried the influence of lobbyists on Washington politics, he failed to mention the sweetheart deal his office cut with big pharma prior to the healthcare deliberations that began this summer. Near the end of his talk on healthcare, Obama cynically asked, “if anyone from either party has a better plan…let me know.” The Socialist Party USA has a better healthcare plan that can be implemented immediately. We support the creation of a single-payer National Healthcare Program that will act as an important first step toward a fully socialized healthcare system, where healthcare is treated as a human right, not a commodity sold to the highest bidder.

Finally, Obama commented on the current wars and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. As thousands of new troops are poured into the quagmire of Afghanistan, he provided the impression that the America’s military adventures are winding down. Yet, he neglected to speak about his aggressive stance and outright military intervention in Yemen and the threats he delivered to Iran. Though there was no “evil-doer” list, Obama did little to dissuade fears of further military intervention. Further, there was no mention of his, as yet unfulfilled, promise to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The Socialist Party USA calls for the immediate removal of all US military troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the closing of Guantanamo Bay and all secret prisons and the closure of the more than 700 military bases throughout the world.

The time has come to bring substance back to politics, and everyday people are the only force capable of doing so. Democratic socialism offers hope for the future – a future with jobs, with healthcare and a future in which regular people gain control over their everyday lives. More than anything, ours is a struggle over values. Where capitalism offers isolated individualism, we propose social solidarity. Where we find the cruelty of the market economy, we present compassionate alternatives. And wherever injustice lies we mobilize to create a more just society. The time for slick public relations campaigns has ended – the time for building our grassroots movements is more urgent than ever. The Socialist Party USA stands ready to join in such a political revitalization.

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Billy Wharton is the co-chair of the Socialist Party USA.

by Zelig Stern
from The Socialist, Vol. 1 2010

Each morning when millions of Americans wake up to go to work, their democratic rights are put on hold. As soon as they arrive at the job, workers step out of democratic society and into a dictatorship. At work, they have no say in how their workplace operates. No part in the decision making process or even control over their own actions. All of the decisions are made by a boss, or board of directors or manager without consulting with those who keep the company running, the workers. The bosses or boards are not elected officials, they do not represent the will of the people, they represent only those who stand to make a profit, themselves and shareholders. Why do workers accept conditions in the workplace that they would not accept in any other part of their lives?

The bosses say that they are not infringing on anyone’s democratic rights, that people are free to choose where they work. But, everyone who works for a living knows that this is not really true. Under capitalism, there are always more workers than there are jobs available, and this is especially true now that unemployment has reached over 10% of the population. Even if workers were truly able to choose to quit one job and take another, it would not change the conditions in the workplace. It would simply be an exchange of one undemocratic situation for another, one boss for another. Some bosses will argue that they treat their employees fairly, that they pay suitable wages, provide benefits, but a benevolent dictator, is still a dictator. In a country that values freedom and democracy, having a democratic workplace is the logical extension of democratic rights.

A democratic workplace would go further than the representative democracy of the American political system. Workplace democracy would mean that workers have direct control over all the ways in which goods and services are produced. This is not just a fantasy, but an implementable reality. In Argentina, after the 1999 – 2002 economic crisis, many capitalists went bankrupt and abandoned their factories, putting thousands out of work. Workers took over the abandon factories and began running them as worker cooperatives - fabricas sin patrons (factories without bosses). By 2005, there were over 200 worker-run cooperatives, run democratically by all who work there. These factories are now operating more efficiently than they ever did when they were run by the capitalists. Similarly, in the Basque region of Spain, the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation operates as a massive worker cooperative that consists of 150 businesses, a central bank, and an educational
wing. It is the seventh largest company in Spain and is entirely run by the workers in a democratic manner. Recently, the United Steelworkers made a commitment to partnering with the Mondragon Cooperative to open cooperative branches of the Mondragon Cooperative in the United States and Canada. These cooperatives are proof that when democracy is extended to the workplace, it becomes a place of empowerment by giving workers the ability to exert control over their own lives. Further, the Mondragon has proven to be more resistant to capitalist economic cycles of booms and bust because much of the profits are re-invested instead of being siphoned off by CEO salaries.

These existing cooperatives provide a model for expanding democracy to more workplaces in the hope that eventually all workers will have the right to democracy at work. Socialism is a system where the workers, own and control all of the productive forces of society collectively. It does not simply mean a government “for the people, by the people,” but an entire economic system “for the people, by the people.” There are those who say workers are not smart enough to know how to run a business or that democracy is too inefficient to work in the economy. But Argentine and Spanish workers have already proved them wrong. Now is the time to bring workplace democracy to America and fully realize the promise of freedom and democracy.

from Wikipedia
Metropolis is a 1927 silent German expressionism science fiction film directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and Thea von Harbou. Lang and von Harbou, who were married, wrote the screenplay in 1924, and published a novelization in 1926, before the film was released. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and examines a common science fiction theme of the day: the social crisis between workers and owners in capitalism. The film stars Alfred Abel as the leader of the city, Gustav Fröhlich as his son, who tries to mediate between the elite caste and the workers, Brigitte Helm as both the pure-at-heart worker Maria and the debased robot version of her, and Rudolf Klein-Rogge as the mad scientist who creates the robot.

Metropolis was produced in the Babelsberg Studios by Universum Film A.G. (UFA) and released in 1927. The most expensive film of its time, it cost approximately 7 million Reichsmark to make. The film was cut substantially after its German premiere, and there have been several efforts to restore it, as well as rediscoveries of previously lost footage. The American copyright lapsed in 1953, which eventually led to a proliferation of versions being released on video.

The reconstruction of Metropolis, completed in 2001 and shown at the Berlin Film Festival, was inscribed on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in that same year.