In
this issue:
*Convention information on the Web!
*Kudos to Wally & the PWW
*Book sale at the Reference Center
*Star Wars
*Pro-Democracy Convention
*Alliance for Retired Americans
*Pacifica Alert
*ACLU Alerts
*Bush and Energy
*Bush and Kyoto
*BONUS: Excerpts from Jarvis Tyner’s PWW article on the JEFFORDS SWITCH
COUNTDOWN TO THE
CONVENTION! Only 36 more days to go! Check out the new Convention
web site here.
The latest reports
from the May 5-6 National Committee Meeting are up here.
We are having trouble
with our web server and are waiting to make a transition to a new one
before we can post anything new. So we will be posting the latest
draft of the Constitution, along with an introduction
to it, and a proposed
resolution from the School Workers’ Commission on the Yahoo! Discussion
group. We should be adding these to the web site by mid-week.
KUDOS TO WALLY
AND THE PWW!!
We received the following
e-mail from Wally in Ohio:
Please pass this on
to the PWW crew. Passing out the paper
at the steelworker rally in Middletown Saturday, I was greeted with overwhelming
praise for the work done by the PWW over many years in supporting steelworkers
and their families struggling for the economic justice they have earned
and so richly deserve. Young staffers I met for the first time called
me a "legend" , but that praise belongs to the dedicated crew
at the PWW and the small band of hard core Communists in Ohio that appreciate
the ‘legendary’ impact our newspaper has when put into the hands of working
folks.
BOOK SALE AT THE
REFERENCE CENTER FOR MARXIST STUDIES!
Get your rare books
now! Check out the web site:
https://www.cpusa.org/rcms/books_for_sale.html
ATTENTION ALL STAR
WARS ACTIVISTS!
Tell President Bush,
Congress and their Corporate Sponsors: Stop the Star Wars Fraud! Abolish
Nuclear Weapons Now! Stop the militarization of space!
Sunday, June 10, 2:00
p.m. National Mobilization. Join us at the White House! Lafayette Park,
Washington, DC. Buses leave from Manhattan and Brooklyn on June 10th at
9:00 a.m. and return around 10:00 p.m. Cost is roundtrip. Payment
needed by June 4. For more information or to reserve a seat, call Aaron
Bouska (212) 870-2304 or Ken Estey (212) 280-1426. Please leave your name
and number.
Sponsored by: Project
Abolition, Greenpeace USA, War Resisters League, Peace Action, Fellowship
of Reconciliation and many more.
PRO-DEMOCRACY CONVENTION
Shaping the Future
of Democracy in America: From Voter Disenfranchisement to a Voters’ Bill
of Rights
June 29 – July 1,
2001
Annenberg Center,
University of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia
(sponsored by the Center for Constitutional Rights)
ALLIANCE FOR RETIRED
AMERICANS
May 23, 2001 Press
Release:
The Alliance for Retired Americans, a new 2.5 million-member advocacy
group backed by the AFL-CIO, was announced today at a Capitol Hill news
conference and retiree "Speakout" that drew enthusiastic support
from Members of Congress.
For more information,
visit www.retiredamericans.org.
PACIFICA ALERT
AND UPDATE
Pacifica stations
KPFK in Los Angeles and WBAI in New York continue to keep Democracy Now!
off the air. We must continue to challenge this egregious act of censorship
and to escalate our protests.
Go the following web
site for ideas on what you can do:
http://www.pacificacampaign.org/actionagenda.html
ACLU ACTION ALERT
ABOUT DISCRIMINATION AND VOUCHERS
TO: ACLU Action Network
FR: Jared Feuer, Internet Organizer
DT: May 22, 2001
1). Discrimination
in Public Schools
2). Voucher Battle
in House
1). As early as tomorrow,
the Senate and the House could vote on an education bill amendment introduced
by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) and Rep. Van Hilleary (R-TN), that would take
all federal funds away from public schools that prohibit the Boy Scouts
or other groups that discriminate against gays and lesbians from using
public school facilities.
Since it is already
illegal for public schools to treat the Boy Scouts differently because
of their beliefs, this legislation is unnecessary. Simply put, the Helms/Hilleary
amendment is an endorsement of discrimination. It would also give the
Boy Scouts and other anti-gay groups a unique new right, thus violating
the constitutional prohibition on the government promoting or penalizing
a specific viewpoint.
Take Action! You can
read more about this legislation and send a FREE FAX to your Members of
Congress from our action alert at:
http://www.aclu.org/action/anti-gay107.html
2). Also, the House
is expected to vote on a series of amendments to an important education
bill that would create divisive vouchers programs in the nation’s schools.
The education bill
is an essential source of federal funds, helping to ensure that disadvantaged
students have access to quality public education. These important funds
must not be turned into private school vouchers! When resources are taken
from public schools to support vouchers for a few, the majority of students
are left with fewer resources, teachers, textbooks and facilities.
Take Action! Although
ACLU activists already sent more than 11,000 letters to the Senate on
vouchers, the battle is now raging in the House. You can read more about
the legislation and send a FREE FAX to your Representative from our action
alert at:
http://www.aclu.org/action/vouchers107.html
PELTIER UPDATE
AND ACTION
Strike While the Iron
is Hot!
Demand Investigations
Dear Friends:
Recent revelations
of FBI misconduct have prompted Senator Charles Schumer of New York and
Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa to call for "top to bottom"
investigations of the FBI. (Grassley is a strong critic of the FBI). Let’s
voice our support for investigations and push for the inclusion of the
Peltier case.
Write and call your
local Representative and your two Senators, and cc your letters to Senator
Schumer and Senator Grassley. To find out who your Rep. and Senators are,
and how to contact them, look them up on these sites:
http://www.senate.gov
http://www.house.gov
All senate and house addresses are also linked by state from Native News
Online
or call the switch board: 202-224-3121. Go to the following link for a
sample letter: http://www.freepeltier.org/demand_investigations.htm#top.
(If you are in New York or in Iowa, and either Schumer or Grassley is
one of your Senators, adapt the letter by thanking them, encouraging them,
and urging them to include Peltier in any push for investigations.)
BLOCK JOHN GRAHAM
APPOINTMENT
An obscure appoint
to the Office of Management and Budget may toll the death knoll for important
federal regulations. President Bush has nominated John Graham as head
of the Office of Internal Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at OMB. In this Post,
he will become the primary "regulatory gate-keeper" and therefore
able to delay, block or gut any new regulations on the environment, worker
health and safety, patient protections and others.
The Committee voted
9-3 (11-4 if you count proxies) in favor of Graham. Senators Lieberman
(CT), Durbin (IL), Torricelli (NJ), and Cleland (GA) fortunately stood
up for strong public protections and opposed Graham. It is urgent that
other Senators be encouraged to take a stand against Graham when the full
Senate votes on his confirmation. Tell your Senators to vote against John
Graham, and to oppose Bush’s other efforts to weaken or eliminate national
health, safety and environmental standards. Call the Capitol switchboard
at 202-224-3121, or click here for a page that has a link for sending
free faxes: http://www.citizen.org/congress/regulations/graham.html.
ACLU ALERT – RACIAL
PROFILING
Although the practice
of racial profiling, commonly referred to as "Driving While Black
or Brown," has become an increasingly prominent issue, even taking
center stage during the 2000 Presidential debates, Congress still stubbornly
refuses to act on this problem. As a result, hundreds of thousands of
African-Americans and Latinos continue to experience the humiliation of
being stopped while driving, flying, or even walking for no other reason
than the color of their skin.
Some members of Congress
are planning to introduce bold new legislation to address this issue.
This legislation would provide for a study of racial profiling while taking
significant steps to remedy the nationwide problem. It would enable the
Attorney General to fund and mandate data collection by federal and state
law enforcement agencies on any police "stops," concretely define
racial profiling and declare it illegal, and give victims of racial profiling
the right to sue police departments that have violated their rights.
Take Action! Racial
profiling is exactly the sort of unequal treatment that leads minorities
to distrust the criminal justice system. You can read more about the proposed
legislation and ask your Members of Congress to support and cosponsor
its introduction from our action alert at:
http://www.aclu.org/action/dwb107.html
BUSH AND ENERGY
There’s a web site
with great information about the Bush plan, including a
way for you to e-mail to your senators. Check it out at
http://www.NewEnergyFuture.com/1
There’s also a funny,
quick video telling the truth about what’s in
President Bush’s energy plan at
http://www.NewEnergyFuture.com/11
BUSH AND KYOTO
ACTION
President Bush recently announced that the United States Government
will not honour its commitments under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to reduce
greenhouse gases. The United States produce 25% of the world’s carbon
dioxide, a gas that is believed to be the main contributor to global
warming. Rising global temperatures are known to raise sea levels, and
change precipitation and other climate conditions. Changing climates
alter forests, crop yields, and water supplies. It could also threaten
human health, and harm birds, fish, and many types of ecosystems. An
increase in weather-related disasters will occur, deserts may expand
into existing range lands, densely populated coastal areas will flood
and large numbers of people will have to move.
Show you disagree
with the Bush Administration’s decision to withdraw
from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on Global Warming. Urge President Bush to
review his policy in this matter and devise a comprehensive plan to
reduce US emissions of so-called greenhouse gases.
Send an e-mail to
the White House at president@whitehouse.gov
to
show Mr. Bush the world is watching.
THE JEFFORDS SWITCH
It’s time to take the offensive
excerpts from the June 2, 2001 PWW
By Jarvis Tyner, Executive Vice Chair, CPUSA
Last week, to the
cheers of his constituents, Senator James Jeffords of Vermont boldly declared
he is quitting the Republican Party and becoming an Independent. This
single act by a single member of the US Senate represents a strategic
setback for the Bush administration. It has shook
up Washington and is sending political tremors throughout the nation.
Jeffords, a life long
Republican, declaring himself an Independent and joining with the Democrats,
makes them the new majority in the US Senate. The Jeffords switch was
like an aftershock from the November elections. Bush did not win the popular
vote last November and took power based on the
most unscrupulous theft of the Florida vote. Bush then proceeded to boldly
implement his program as if he had the full support of the American people.
Jeffords switch was a wake up call for the Republicans and a reminder
of what Lincoln a Republican president once said "you can’t fool
all of the people all of the time".
When you look at who
will be in charge in the new Senate, the devastation to Bush from the
Jeffords switch becomes dramatically clear. The entire administration
is on the defensive. Klan-connected Trent Lott of Mississippi is out as
majority leader and Tom Daschle is in. This new Senate Democrat/Independent
majority will soon take over the committee chairs. Orrin Hatch of Utah
will be out as Chairman of the Judiciary and liberal Joseph Biden of Delaware
will take over. Patrick Leahy of Vermont will take over as Chairman of
the sub committee on judicial appointments.
That means that the
Bush right wing judicial nominees up to and including the Supreme Court
could be blocked. Jesse Helms of North Carolina will be out as Chair of
Foreign Relations. That means that the Star Wars program will face stiff
opposition and is in trouble. Carl Levin of Michigan will
replace John W. Warner of Virginia US in the Armed Services this means
that Rumsfeld’s reckless military build up could be stopped. Edward Kennedy
of Massachusetts will take over the Health Education, Labor and Pensions
which means a Patient’s Bill of Rights has a fighting chance and the minimum
wage increase will be seriously considered. Fred Thompson will be replace
by Joseph Lieberman in Government Affairs. Charles Grassley of Iowa a
vocal right winger will be replace by Max Baucus of Montana in Finance.
Chris Dodd of Connecticut will replace Mitch McConnell in Rules and Administration.
In Agriculture Tom Harkin from Iowa will replace Richard Lugar from Indiana.
This will open the way for desperately needed support for family farmers.
This all means that the Senate can become a powerful block against the
disastrous policies of George W. Bush. But this will not happened without
organized pressure from the people.
The Senator from Vermont,
who is a moderate, made it very clear that it was Bush’s extreme right
wing policies and the heavy-handed dictatorial way they treated the moderate
wing of his party that forced him to quit the GOP.
The Jeffords switch
is very important and cannot be fully understood if it’s seen solely as
a fight between the Democrat and Republican Parties. Its historic significance
lies in creating an opportunity for labor and civil rights and all progressive
forces to block the disastrous policies of Bush and take the offensive.
The Jeffords switch
opens the opportunity to broaden the anti Bush front. Others will follow
Jeffords lead. The moderate voters who voted for George W. Bush did not
expect to get Newt Gingrich in the White House. Those Republican women
who thought George Bush was a moderate on abortion rights now know that
he deceived them.
The Communist
Party believes it is time to take the offensive. The US Senate can
become a powerful block against the disastrous policies of George W. Bush.
But this will not happen without organized pressure from the people. The
ultra right has not given up. The struggle continues
under these new conditions. To win means it’s time to take the offensive.
The new majority of
Democrats and Independents in the US Senate gives the labor and progressive
forces new leverage to not only block the Bush policies but to take the
offensive on the vital issues of the day.
We say:
>- Why not real campaign finance reform and a total democratization
of our electoral process?
>- – Why not call for a through investigation of what happened
in Florida and the other states where blatant violations of the Voting
Rights Act took place?
>- It’s time to for a higher minimum wage .
>- It’s time for new legislation outlawing racial profiling
and for a moratorium on the death penalty .
>- It’s time to advance a prescription drug program .
>- It’s time to push for total health care coverage for all
the uninsured.
>- It’s time to Block the Star Wars and move towards complete
nuclear
disarmament.
>- It’s time for a massive Federal Public Works Jobs Program.
>- We need to immediate federal intervention to roll back rates
and put a stop the oil and gas utility rip off.
>- We need to immediately act to protect Alaskan and other federal
lands from the oil and gas profiteers.
>- We need to rescind the Bush ban on oversea abortions.
>- We need an immediate end to the bombing of Vieques .
>We must build on this set back and set the stage now for major
victories against the right in 2002 and 2004.
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