Letters to Workers World

WW on Hungary: ‘Breath of fresh air’

Finally!!! I read something online that doesn’t give the usual bs about the ‘56 revolution in Hungary. The USSR made mistakes in the past and it didn’t help when the revolt started, but the right wing always uses events such as this to advance that communism is bad and the only alternative is the dog-eat-dog mentality of the capitalist system. The article mentioned the positive achievements of socialism after the liberation of 1945 when the Nazis were defeated. It was a breath of fresh air to say the least. I have donated to you folks a few times and I think I made a wise decision every time. Hope to do so again.

In solidarity,
Galen Carland

Stop the execution!

I am writing in response to the article found at www.workers.org/2006/us/austin-1109/ which has to do with the problems with the Texas executions.

I have a friend named CHARLES ANTHONY NEALY who is scheduled to be put to death in Texas on November 16th for something he did not do, unless his execution is stopped. According to his website www.anthonynealy.org, there has been evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, yet the execution still has not been halted. Please, please, if there is anything you can do, please let us know. As members of his network of friends, we have done all we can do to help Charles. We can only pray now.

Thank you,
Valerie

Stand with UAW Local 1268

Brothers and Sisters, I am a member of UAW Local 1268 in Belvidere, Illinois. I am sending you this email so that you can be informed of what is happening to other brothers and sisters of your UAW. I was kicked out of MY union by Chrysler, not Mr. Littlejohn our president, due to my social security date and hire date!! I am not quite sure if you have heard about the enhanced, two-structured pay scale, or the dishonest hire-under-false-pretenses that Chrysler has put UAW members through, but you need to be informed. Go to www.enhancedfight.com and to the yahoo group. Put your voices on there so that the brothers and sisters of local 1268 know that you are out there for them. We all need to stand together on this! And we need your help!!!! Local1268 President Littlejohn needs your help in this fight!!! Please go to this site, read what is happening to our brothers and sisters, the solidarity, our Local. I am just one person, but, I will not allow for MY UNION to be torn apart by this large corporation. Pass this on so that others in UAW both locally and internationally are informed of us.

Thank you,
Kathy Hungness
Belvidere Chrysler

Correction on Lucasville Five

www.workers.org/2006/us/lucasville-five-1026/

The article “Freedom sought for Lucasville Five” (Workers World, Oct. 26) discussed an uprising that occurred at a Supermax prison in Youngstown, Ohio. According to a letter from Siddique Abdullah Hasan, one of the Lucasville Five: “The ‘small uprising’ you referred to in your article happened on Sept. 5, 1997, while we were on death row at Mansfield Correctional Institution, not at the Supermax prison in Youngstown. The Supermax did not start housing former Lucasville prisoners until May 4, 1998, and the Lucasville Five arrived here on May 7 and May 15.”

Telesur interview

www.workers.org/2006/world/telesur-1026/

One mistake in this otherwise very good article. The article states: Telesur has been in the works for four years. Its first transmission was on July 25, 2005. By the end of this September, Telesur had more than 40 journalists working out of its home base in Caracas and in worldwide bureaus. Telesur is a joint venture of the Venezuelan, Bolivian and Argentinean governments.

They forgot to include Cuba, which is indeed a part of the Telesur venture.

From Progreso Weekly - July 28, 2005

"Our North is the South" By Radio Progreso Alternativa and Progreso Weekly Teams: "Telesur is the joint effort of four countries that contribute with capital to the "Telesur Multistate Venture." Argentina contributed with 20%, Cuba 19%, Uruguay 10%, and Venezuela (its biggest promoter) 51%. They are all stockholders of this effort where more than $10 million dollars have already been invested in technology, equipment and facilities. In order to broadcast its signal it has rented satellite NSS-806, but in two years it will probably use a Venezuelan satellite built and placed in orbit by China.

Socialism or Nothing!---Joan

Editor's note: Joan is right. The article has been corrected

Sudan and UN resolution

www.workers.org/2006/world/sudan-0914/index.html

Sara Flounders wrote: "On Sept. 1, the U.S. and Britain had rammed Resolution 1701 through the UN Security Council. It called for sending more than 20,000 UN troops to Sudan to take over from 7,000 African Union forces."

Resolution 1701 has nothing to do with Sudan.

Ghali Hassan

Sara Flounders replies:

You are correct. Resolution 1701 was on Lebanon. It was a typographical error [and has been corrected on the web version of the report]. The correct resolution number is 1706.

UN Security Council Resolution 1706 on Sudan was passed on Aug 31 and was reported in the news on Sept 1.

The resolution is available on the UN’s web site at: http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_resolutions06.htm.

Minutemen at ground zero

www.workers.org/2006/us/minutemen-0810/index.html

It was refreshing to see your article. Over the years I have researched these people, and you hit the nail right on the head. ... Just hard to believe people could be so awful. I actively protest them, so I appreciate your article.

Thank you, Kay

Division Street riots

www.workers.org/2006/us/chicago-0706/index.html

Hello Workers World,

I was reading the article on the Division Street riots by Eric Struch, and was very pleased to see such an important historical piece about the Puerto Rican people in Chicago written during these times. This was one of the first Puerto Rican-initiated acts of defiance during the Civil Rights movement and sparked a lot of momentum in the late 1960s to help the Boricuas stand up for their rights, which led to the growth and organizing of groups like the Young Lords and Latin Kings.

I also wanted to add on that the victim of the gunshot during that time was a member of the Latin Kings. Many of the people in that crowd that came to his aid and later played a major role in orchestrating the protests and rebellion against the police state in Chicago were none other than members of the Almighty Latin Kings/Queens Nation (ALKQN), who at that time were very community-based and respected by the people before receiving the gang label we have today.

I, being a member of the ALKQN, am aware of the history of these riots and want to inform others of their occurrence, and I will be happy to share this article with others so that our history can help bring awareness and inspiration to our members to bring us closer back to our revolutionary roots. ¡Poder a la gente!

King Prophet
Almighty Latin Kings/Queens Nation

Meanwhile, back in Iraq

www.workers.org/2006/editorials/iraq-0810/

I too have a son in the 172nd Brigade who was given the news just 72 hours before he was to return to the states that he would be staying another four months in Iraq. Imagine his surprise. Needless to say he was NOT happy. In his most recent e-mails he has adjusted his attitude because he didn't have a choice, and I pray now that he will return safely.

So many people oppose the war at this point and I wonder how many people who oppose the war voted for Bush the second time around. We were deep into the war at this point. The reason the war is still raging and we still have troops in Iraq is because of all the people who voted for Bush. I honestly feel if something should happen to my son I would have in bold letters in his obituary, "If you voted for Bush, don't attend my son's funeral. You should be going to prison for murder."

Yes, I am angry. This was my son's second deployment and he was supposed to be discharged from the army on Sept. 24th. The army has totally broken their promise to him. I just hope President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld are enjoying their coffee and pastries in the Oval Office this morning. I'm sure if they had a loved one overseas like me they wouldn't have much of an appetite.

Diane K.

Progressives in AFGE raise resolutions on Iraq and immigrant rights

On Aug. 7 to 11, 1,500 delegates met in Atlanta for the national convention of the American Federation of Government Employees. The lobby, hallways, patio and ballroom of the hotel were full of people talking union. At least half women, at least half people of color, these are the activists in AFGE. As a first-time delegate, I was in a state of euphoria. AFGE is the largest union of federal employees, representing 600,000 federal employees plus employees of the District of Columbia. There are 217,500 members in 1,100 locals. All workplaces are open shop.

The two major points of business of the convention were to elect national officers and to consider resolutions. Several progressive resolutions had been proposed by the National Human Rights Committee and/or Council 1 (representing locals in the Washington D.C. area) including a resolution calling for unconditional withdrawal from Iraq and another entitled, “Reforming Anti-Worker Immigration Policies.”

In between times there were awards, including two organizing awards to locals in Texas—who says the South can’t be organized? There were also rousing speeches from National Education Association President Reg Weaver, United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts, and Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO, Linda Chavez-Thompson.

Meanwhile the candidates for national president, national secretary treasurer and national vice president for Women’s and Fair Practices gave speeches and made the rounds of the district caucuses. I asked one of the candidates for National VP for Women and Fair Practices what her position was on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. She answered, in essence, that those were civil rights that should be part of the union’s program, and by the way, she was a member of Pride at Work.

Then all around the room, people started calling out, “So am I! So am I!” including the coordinator for fair practices in my district. It was a happening! I was so excited, I think I may have been jumping up and down. A man sitting in front of me asked me what Pride at Work was and I proudly explained that it was a constituency group of the AFL-CIO for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers, similar to CLUW (Coalition of Labor Union Women), the A. Phillip Randolph Institute and others, and I showed him my Pride at Work T-shirt which I happened to be wearing.

Across the street, members of the Carpenters Union were picketing against the use of non-union labor and quite a number of us joined their picket line. The chants were high-spirited, in spite of the intense sun and humidity. Two repetitions of “No justice, no peace!” were followed by, “If we don’t get no justice, then you don’t get no peace.” Empty plastic water bottles were used to bang on the back of the picket signs in complex rhythms.

I was glad to see our national president and the VA nurse from North Carolina, who later was elected national secretary treasurer, on the picket line. It was a beautiful example of labor solidarity. We as federal employees are not allowed to strike but we can make a lot of noise in other ways.

A new friend from the Department of Labor said he’d march on any picket line at any time. His boast is that he has been arrested 33 times on picket lines, with a record four times in one day. He comes from three generations of union activism: his father was president of his Teamsters local and now his son is active in his union as well.

Back in the convention hall, resolutions were easily passed to work with other organizations for an A. Phillip Randolph national holiday and to work on local, state and national hate crime legislation inclusive of “sexual orientation.”

A local in New York City had introduced a resolution to support Transport Workers Union Local 100 against anti-union attacks and that also passed easily. A resolution was passed calling on the AFL-CIO and affiliated labor organizations to develop American labor consciousness by building labor history into all levels of the school system, present positive images of labor in the media and open labor institutes on college campuses.

Then suddenly the differences emerged. Try to picture a union, the largest portions of which are Veterans Administration and Social Security, but also the Department of Defense and Department of Justice. The Bureau of Prisons has as much as 98 percent of its bargaining units as members and that determines their numbers of delegates - and they are vocal.

The Border Patrol and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) employees are in the union as well. The resolution on “Reforming Anti-Worker Immigration Policies” was worded in a technical and confusing way, but the debate on the floor brought out the “they’re stealing our jobs” rhetoric, with other voices pushing back against the tide of reaction.

I was just getting up to speak, to suggest that workers everywhere are our sisters and brothers and we need to look at who benefits when we are divided by hostility to immigrants, when the question was called, debate was over, and the resolution failed. There is a powerful need to do education within the union on a wide range of subjects related to immigration and to build a base around the Washington, D.C. Council that put forward the resolution.

Next passionate debate—unconditional withdrawal from Iraq. Those speaking against withdrawal often prefaced their remarks with, "I’m a veteran and ..." until someone for withdrawal pointed out that he was a veteran too. Many of those speaking for withdrawal from Iraq were people of color. The resolution was voted down almost two to one, and that was the voting pattern in every district except the one that encompasses Washington, D.C.

After the vote, I ran up to a group of women in that district and told them I would have to move to Washington. I said, “We can’t let our babies go off to be slaughtered!” And they said, “That’s right!”

Democracy from the floor of a union convention is not a tidy process, and in addition to human failings there are electronic glitches such as microphones not working and so on. But it’s our union democracy, built upon hard-working activists, every one of them a feisty worker in his or her own right, defending co-workers from the assault we face.

As federal workers, we are some of the shock troops, fighting back against Bush and his gang. They’re our bosses—think about that for a minute. They have done everything they could think of to break the back of this union: through contracting out, through attacks on individual union leaders, through creating the whole Department of Homeland “Stupidity” and stripping them—or trying to—of their contract rights.

Wrong! We have fought back and will keep fighting on every front. We gained 11,000 new members last year. We exposed agencies that the Bush administration was trying to gut, such as the EEOC. If you want to see an example of workers who will not go quietly, it is the members of AFGE! Solidarity forever! Build the worldwide workers movement!

Sharon Danann
Cleveland

Corrections

Readers correctly pointed out that in the article, "Six gay men attacked after Pride festival," the attack was on Saturday, July 29 and not Sunday, July 30; that in the international roundup article of Aug. 4-6 demonstrations, there "were close to 60,000 people at the Montreal rally, despite inaccurate news reports of there being on 15,000"; that in an article of solidarity statements with the Palestinian and Lebanese people, PASOK was not the ruling party in Greece but the opposition (social-democratic) party. Where feasible we have corrected the on-line copies of the articles. We also received a request for more references in our articles, which we are attempting to honor.

John Catalinotto, managing editor