|
Today's
Stories
April 2, 2008
Col. Dan Smith
The
Militarization of America
Steve Early
A Purple Uprising in Oakland
April 1, 2008
Jeff Leys
Fracturing
the Peace to End the War
Thomas P. Healy
Restoring the Constitution: a Conversation with Daniel Ellsberg
Winslow T. Wheeler
When Pigs Sprout Wings: Mangled Rationales for a Fatter Defense
Budget
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
New Deal Nostalgia
Patrick Irelan
Cocaine, Colombia and the Cartels
Andy Worthington
The Case of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani
John V. Walsh
The Shunning of Ralph Nader
Michael J.
Smith
Woolly Mamet
Robert Weissman
The New Philip Morris--Even Worse Than the Old?
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Defining Moments
Martha Rosenberg
Brain Mist Disease: Boss Hog's Gift to Humanity
Website of
the Day
Support Briana!
March 31, 2008
Mike Whitney
Dead
on Arrival: Paulson's Fixit Plan for Wall Street
Mats Svensson
Walls,
Tunnels and Daily Humiliations
Paul Rockwell
Hillary's
Lies About Outsourcing
Paul Craig Roberts
A Third American War in the Making?
Patrick Cockburn
Sadr
Calls for Ceasefire
Peter Dale Scott
The Showdown
Alfredo Molano
Cultura Mafiosa in Colombia
Peter Morici
Why Paulson's Reform Plan Falls Short
Uri Avnery
Day of the Land, 32 Years Later
Michael Simmons
The American Bard in New Orleans
Betsy Roberts
/ Karen Orr
The Clorox Coup
Phyllis Pollack
First the Sun and Then the Moon: Scorsese Does the Stones
Website of
the Day
Five Years Too Many
March 29 / 30, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
When
They Pick Up the Phone at 3 AM, What Will They Say?
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Police Refuse to Back Maliki's Attacks on Medhi Army
Mike Whitney
Bernanke's Next Big Bail Out Plan
Christopher Brauchli
The Pastor of Armageddon and the Slave Sale: McCain, Lieberman
and Rev. Hagee
William Blum
China, Tibet and the Propaganda Olympics
Robert Fantina
Iraq
Troika: McCain, Obama and Clinton
John Ross
AMLO, the Comeback Kid? Fighting the Privatization of Mexico's
Oil
Allison Kilkenny
Shady Lending Hits Home
Nelson P. Valdés
Cuba, the Beatles and Historical Context
Suzanne Baroud
The Great Lake of Gaza: a New Crisis in the Making
Richard Rhames
Social Security: Throwing Granny from the Gravy Train
Christopher Fons
Transcending the 60s? Obama and the Baby Boomers
Carl Finamore
Misery at 35,000 Feet: Mergers Stall, Fares Soar, Services Slump
and Consumers Sour
Eamonn McCann
Hillary Misremembers Again!
Missy Beattie
Justice and the Monsters of War
Fred Gardner
Jim Thorpe, All-American
Kim Nicolini
Cock Chuggers and Cheese Curls: Richard Kelly's "Southland
Tales"
David Yearsley
"All the World's a Hospital"
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up
Poets' Basement
Valentine and Ko Un
Website of
the Weekend
Hidden Iraq
March 28, 2008
Saul Landau
Growing
Dread About Iraq
Alan Farago
Other People's Money: the Chop Shop Economy
Peter Morici
Knocking Down False Economic Gods
Andy Worthington
Plight of the Uyghus: a Chinese Muslim's Desperate Plea from
Guantánamo
Felice Pace
Ashes of Lies: Why No One Trusts the US Forest Service
Peter Montague
Sierra Club Cleans House -- With Clorox!
Dave Lindorff
The Mumia Exception
March 27, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Basra
Erupts
Binoy Kampmark
Free Market Apostates
Joanne Mariner
"Was George Washington a Terrorist?"
Norman Solomon
NPR News: National Pentagon Radio?
William S. Lind
Mars Only Knocks Once: a Prognosis for Iraq
John V. Walsh
Obama's Speech: a Touch of Bigotry?
Robert Weissman
How Things Work
Ron Jacobs
Meeting Charlie Ehlen
Ralph Nader
Put Impeachment Back on the Table
David Macaray
Court Rules Against Grocery Workers
John Borowski
Clearcutting the History of Forest Destruction
Website of
the Day
Going Out for an English
March 26, 2008
Stan Cox
The
Germs Next Door
Sharon Smith
Greed
Pays: Welfare on Wall Street
Anita Sinha / Jill Tauber
Dreams Turned into Rubble in New Orleans
Matt Vidal
So Much for the Self-Regulating Market
William S. Lind
Operation Cassandra
Joe Mowrey
The Audacity of Hypocrisy: Obama's Pandering to Israel
Dave Lindorff
Duck and Cover (Up): Hillary Under Fire
Ray McGovern
Frontline's War: Too Timid, Too Little, Too Late
Justin Smith
Why Race and Gender are Separate Issues
Sam Husseini
The Winter Soldier Hearings and Indy Media
Martha Rosenberg
Blood on Ice: Gentlemen, Pick Up Your Clubs
Michael Dickinson
Politicians as Dogs
Website of the Day
The Wal-Mart Virus: How the Infection Spread
March 25, 2008
Ishmael Reed
The
Crazy Rev. Wright
Corey D. B.
Walker
The Politics of Jeremiah Wright
Linn Washington Jr.
Racism in America and Other Uncomfortable Facts
Alan Farago
The Money Launderers: a Picnic for Wall St. Insiders
Vijay Prashad
A Glimmer of Hope From the Gulf Coast
Joshua Frank
A Silver Lining to the Bush Years?
Ralph Nader
How Public Servants Can Help End This War
David Rovics
If I Can't Dance: Why is the Left So Boring?
Peter Morici
America's Banks are Broken
Dave Zirin
Olympic Flames: China's Crackdown in Tibet
David Krieger
The Crisis in Tibet
Website of
the Day
Memorializing Iraq
March 24, 2008
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blonde
Ambition: Hillary's Berserker Campaign for 2012
Peter Morici
Digging Out of the Recession
Uri Avnery
Two Americas
Wajahat Ali
First of the Mohicans: an Interview with Rep. Keith Ellison
Paul Craig Roberts
Inside the Shell Game
George Ciccariello-Maher
The Coming War on Venezuela
Stephen Lendman
Sami Al-Arian's Long Ordeal
Christopher
Brauchli
Possessing Someone Else's Country
Cat Woods
A Letter to Mom on Obama
Stacey Warde
Tax Burden
Dave Lindorff
The American Dead Hits 4,000, But Who's Counting?
Website of
the Day
Live from the Longest Walk
March 22 /
23, 2008
Ralph Nader
Bush
Blisters the Truth on Iraq
Nicole Colson
Can You Afford to Feed Your Family?
James Petras
The Cost of Unilateral Humanitarian Initiatives
Laura Carlsen
From Bombs to Markets: The Andean Crisis and the Geopolitics
of Trade
Greg Moses
Tolerance and the American Pulpit
Andy Worthington
Torture Stories Dog Guantánamo Trials
Michael Dickinson
Art on Trial
John Ross
Bush's Surge Hits Mosul
Missy Comley Beattie
Killer Economics
David Michael
Green
Happy Anniversary, America!
Ramzy Baroud
The Coming Uncertain War on Iran
Martha Rosenberg
Easter Egg Shells from Hell
Paul Watson
Evolution is Going to the Dogs in the Galapagos
Isabella Kenfield
Monsanto's
Raid on Brazil
James Murren
Logging v. Water in Honduras
Jacob Hornberger
Sex and the Immigration Officer
Kathlyn Stone
Ben Heine, Master of the Art of Resistance
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking New Mexico's History
Kim Nicolini
Class, Gender and Abortion in Communist Romania
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Booked Up: What I'm Reading This Week
Poets' Basement
Wilson, Woods, Gibbons and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Merci, McCain!
March 21, 2008
Marleen Martin
Land
Behind Bars: the Hidden Casualties of America's "War on
Crime"
Peter Montague
Run
Your Car on Coal? Maybe Not
Saul Landau
Monroe's
Deadly Doctrine
Anis Hamadeh
Merkel in the Knesset
Jacob Hornberger
McCain's Al Qaeda Scare: Slip or Tactic?
Khalil Nakhleh
Al Nakba of 1948: How Long Will It Persist?
Adam Isacson
Colombia, Paramilitary Threats and Assassinations
Kenneth Couesbouc
Money for Nothing
Madis Senner
Will the Feds Underwrite the Stock Market?
Monica Benderman
The Costs of Freedom: What Are You Willing to Pay?
Website of the Day
Stop Foreclosures and Evictions
March 20, 2008
Damien Millet
/
Eric Toussaint
The
Triple Failing of the Big Private Banks
Mike Whitney
Winding
Up Bear
John Ross
What Do We Owe Iraq?
Dave Lindorff
Paying the Piper: the Bodies and Bills are Piling Up
Wajahat Ali
Pakistan on Fire
Jill Nagle
Memo to Sex Workers: Stop Financing Shock Journalism
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Obama and the Psychic Auto-Shrink-Wrapping Called Race in America
Dan La Botz
Obama's Race Speech
Robert Weissman
Alternative Power: Shutting Down the API
Stella Dallas
/
Jennifer Matsui
Apostasy Now! Mamet, Enter Stage Right
Website of the Day
The Angry Monk
March 19, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
A
War of Lies
Robert Fisk
The Little Men and the Inferno
Jeff Taylor
Five Years of War in Iraq
Ed Ruggero
From Pinkville to Iraq: the Dark Anniversary of My Lai
Ron Jacobs
Who'll Stop the Rain?
Christopher
Fons
Obama Takes the Race Bait
Sherwood Ross
In Defense of Rev. Wright
Cynthia McKinney
An Urgent Crisis: Confronting America's Racial Disparities
Joshua Frank
The Kool-Aid That Kills
Robert Weissman
Monsanto's Genetic Food Gamble
Walter Brasch
It's a Welfare State--If You're Rich
Yifat Susskind
Iraqi Women Resist the Occupation
Andrew Wimmer
War Demands Its Due
Website of
the Day
Glimpses of Nature
March 18, 2008
David Price
The
Military "Leveraging" of Cultural Knowledge
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Collapse of American Power
Tim Wise
Of National Lies and Racial America: Jeremiah Wright, Barack
Obama and the Unacceptability of Truth
Patrick Cockburn
One of the Most Disastrous Wars Ever Fought
Conn Hallinan
Afghanistan, a River Running Backward
James T. Phillips
Monsters: Past, Present and Wannabe
Uri Avnery
The Killing in Bethlehem
David Macaray
Could Wal-Mart Revive the Labor Movement?
Marjorie Cohn
Beware an Attack on Iran
Peter Zinn
Obama in New Orleans
Dan La Botz
The Economic Crisis, Labor and the Left
Monica Benderman
Where are We Going?
March 17, 2008
Pam Martens
The
Fed's Wall Street Dilemma
Sasan Fayazmanesh
The US, Iran and the Policy of Dual Containment
Nelson P. Valdés
The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution
Peter Morici
The Corrosive Consequences of the Trade Deficit
Wajahat Ali
Disrobing the Nine: a Conversation with Jeffrey Toobin on the
Supreme Court Since 9/11
Ronnie Cummins
Beyond Progressive Malpractice: Taking Down Big Pharma
Shaun Harkin
Saint Patrick's Day in Fortress America
Ali Khan
No Pardon for Musharraf
Robert Jensen
Beyond Peace
P. Sainath
Oh, What a Lovely Waiver!
Greg Moses
Jeremiah was a Bullhorn
Dr. Susan Block
Advice for Eliot Spitzer
Website of the Day
No Cowboys
March 15 /
16, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
How
to Destroy a Country in Five Years
Mike Whitney
Bearly
Alive: Investment Giant Rushed to ICU by Panicky Fed Chief
Ralph Nader
Of
Laws and Men
Robert Pollin
It's Still the Economy, Stupid
Diane Christian
The Poetics of Perversity: From Boccaccio to Spitzer
Wajahat Ali
Faking the Hood: a Conversation with Ishmael Reed
Tom Wright
/
Therese Saliba
Rachel Corrie's Case for Justice
Alan Farago
Back to Florida: Where Bushtime Began
Greg Moses
Raiding the Family Room in Texas
Michael Hudson
A Grand Global Bargain?
Martha Rosenberg
Why Hillary's Favorite Chicken Company is Eying China
John Goekler
Fourth Generation Warfare in a Fifth Generation Conflict
Uzma Aslam
Khan
A Letter to Barack Obama: Where's the Change, Barack?
Oren Ben-Dor
The Silencing of Gilad Atzmon
David Underhill
Mammon, Morals and the Mobile Tanker Deal
Fred Gardner
The Education of Eliot Spitzer
David Michael
Green
Why Spitzer Should Have Resigned (and Why He Shouldn't Have)
Rev. William E. Alberts
Jesus, Entombed in Heaven
Gail Dines
It's All About the John: Prostitution and Male Power
David Yearsley
Conducting, Anarchy and the Problem of When to Begin
Chris Clarke
Walking with Zeke: the Luckiest of Dogs
Poets' Basement
Anderson, Lodge & Subiet
Website of
the Day
Deviant Art
March 14, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Watching
the Dollar Die
Don Santina
Vichy
Democrats: Pelosi and the Politics of Collaboration
Patrick Cockburn
Iraqi
Mother Vows Revenge on US: How She Lost Her Husband and Her Sons
Tim Rinne
StratCom
Rules! The Next War Will Start in Nebraska
Robert Fantina
In
Torture We Trust
Saul Landau
Letter
to the Presidents-in-Waitings
David Macaray
Common
Myths About Labor Unions
Franklin Lamb
Is
the Bush Administration Switching Horses in Lebanon
Michael Neumann
The
One State Illusion: Reply to My Critics
March 13, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
Republicans
and "Free Market" Zealots Bring Disaster to America
Mike Whitney
Meltdown
Looms Larger As Credit Markets Freeze
Assaf Kfoury
"One-State
or Two State?"- Sterile Debate on False Alternatives
Andy Worthington
Afghan
Hero Who Died in Guantánamo: The Background to the Story
Adam Federman
From
Autopia to Autogeddon: Cars Reach the End of the Road
March 12, 2008
Dave Lindorff
Bringing
Down Spitzer: It's the Big Brother Who Should Bother US
R.F. Blader
The
Spitzer Backlash
Yonatan Mendel
How
to be an Israeli Journalist. Never Write "Murder" or
"Palestine"
Jonathan Cook
One
State or Two? Neither. The Issue is Zionism
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Fallon
and Gates -- At Least One Cheer
James J. Brittain
Was
the U.S. Involved in Killing the FARC-EP Leaders
Ron Jacobs
"All
the Money You Make Will Never Buy Back Your Soul"
March 11, 2008
Paul Craig
Roberts
How
to End the Subprime Crisis
Ed O'Loughlin
How
Israeli Troops Invade Homes in Gaza, Brutalize, Smash and Steal
Ramzy Baroud
'Unwavering
Commitment' to Inequality
Kathy Christison
One
State or Two? The Debate Over Israel and Palestine
China Hand
PRC
Plays it Cool, as U.S. Tries to Amp Up Pressure on Iran
John Joslin
Thank
You, Nafta! Welcome to Weirton, Home of the Discount Cigarette
Mike Averko
Serb
Politics, Kosovo and the Moscow-Washington Divide
Ben Rosenfeld
Gavin
Newsom's Kneejerk Plan
Thierry Paquot
High
Rise, Low Spirits:The Curse of the Tower Block
March 10, 2008
Uri Avnery
"Kill
A Hundred Turks and Rest": The Five-Day War in Gaza
Col. Dan Smith
Scoring
the "Surge" and What Lies Beyond
R.F. Blader
Why
"Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key" is Losing its
Sheen
Michael Neumann
The
One-State Illusion: More is Less
Bob Fitrakis
and Harvey Wasserman
Did
the Republicans Give Hillary Her Victory in Ohio?
James J. Brittain
Anti-Uribe
Protests in Colombia and the World
Missy Comley
Beattie
The
Passion of John McCain
March 8-9,
2008 Weekend Edition
JoAnn Wypijewski
The
Only Way to Fight the Clintons
Mike Whitney
Sorting
Through the Rubble in Post Bubble America
Peter Morici
Fed
and Treasury Fiddle as Economy Plummets
Ralph Nader
The
Silent Violence of Gaza's Suffering that Candidates Ignore
Jonathan Cook
The
Meaning of Gaza's Shoah
Steve Niva
Behind
the Israeli Escalation in Gaza
Bill and Kathy
Christison
Crisis
over Teheran's Alleged Nuclear Plans Nearing Climax
Hervé
Do Alto and Franck Poupeau
Bolivia:
Morales is Checked
Eric Walberg
To
Leave and Stay at the Same Time: Putin to Medvedev to…?
Scott Johnson
City
of A Thousand Foreclosures
Mark Scaramella
James
Brown's Gate
Bill Clinton
President
Clinton's Remarks on Naming William M. Daley as NAFTA Task Force
Chairman
Poet's Basement
St.
Thomasino, Engel, Davies and Willson
Website of
the Weekend
Hillary
Blackens Barack
March 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Why
Iraq Could Blow-Up in John McCain's Face
Robin Blackburn
Question
for Barrack Obama: Why Afghanistan is the'Right War'?
Saul Landau
The
Stupid Economy
Binoy Kampmark
When
Competition is Good: McCain and the Muddled Democrats
Chris Floyd
Crushing
the Ants: Admiral Fallon and His Empire
Andy Worthington
Spanish
Drop "Inhuman" Extradition Request for Guantánamo
Britons
Will Potter
Before
the Smoke Even Clears in Seattle: Bringing Out the T Word
March 6, 2008
March 6, 2008
Vincent Navarro
The
Next Failure of Health Reform
Forrest Hylton
High Stakes in the Andes: Colombia's Cornered President
Peter Morici
Why the Dollar is So Cheap
George Ciccariello-Maher
Counter-Attack of the Bureaucrats
John Ross
Taxi! Taxi! The Dark Side of the Oscars
Jacob Hornberger
No Standing to Lecture on Justice
Paul Watson
Illegal Japanese Whaling by the Numbers
Dan Bacher
Off the Deep End
Website of the Day
A Katrina Reader Online
March 5, 2008
Cockburn /
St. Clair
A
Great Day for John McCain (and Maybe Nader)
Joanne Mariner
After Guantanamo
Fidel Castro
The Raid on Ecuador: Underestimating Rafael Correa
Christopher
Brauchli
The Turkish Invasions
Steven Sherman
Obama and the Prospects for a Renewal of the Left
Dave Lindorff
Busting Bush & Co. in New England
James Murren
Bombing Somalia
Adam Engel
Necropolis Now
Website of Day
Remember Song
March 4, 2008
Wajahat Ali
Mumbo
Jumbo: Naming Names with Ishmael Reed
William Blum
How Could Hillary Have Known?
Bill Quigley
The Cleansing of New Orleans
Ralph Nader
The Prince Harry Solution
Patrick Irelan
Oil and Health in Venezuela
James J. Brittain
/
R. James Sacouman
Uribe's Colombia is Destabilizing a New Latin America
Norman Solomon
The War Election
Jacob Hornberger
Hillary in Waco: the Missing Apology
Andy Worthington
Guantánamo and the European Parliament
Mike Averko
Kosovo and the Press
Website of the Day
Tex-Mex Primary
March 3, 2008
Jennifer Loewenstein
Gazan Holocaust
Alan Farago
American Politics and the Faltering Economy
Richard Gott
Colombian Deaths in Ecuador
Wajahat Ali
Who Speaks for a Billion Muslims? Analyzing the World Gallup
Poll with John Esposito
Paul Craig Roberts
The Mukasey Conspiracy: a Bi-Partisan Attack on the Constitution
Robert Weissman
When Multinationals Say Adieu
Uri Avnery
Good Morning, Hamas
Martha Rosenberg
When Your Meat is a Downer
Eva Liddell
Leave the Next Dance for Bill
Michael Donnelly
Will Ferrell Does Flint
Website of the Day
Muddy Waters: Train Fare Home Blues
|
Apri1
2, 2008
Reforming the SEIU
A
Purple Uprising in Oakland
By STEVE EARLY
As an infrequent visitor to the west
coast, I've never experienced the earthquake tremors that are
so familiar to millions of Californians.
But, in a union hall in downtown
Oakland last Thursday (3/27), one didn't have to be a seismologist
to see-and feel-the fault lines shifting in America's second-largest
union.
Several hundred members and
staffers of United Healthcare Workers (UHW) were jammed into
their local headquarters for a raucous press conference and pep
rally. Arriving by bus, the BART, on foot and by car, the crowd
was chanting, clapping, whistling, and making an enormous racket
with union-issued yellow plastic clackers.
Almost everyone wore the signature
purple T-shirts and jackets of their national organization, the
Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
The event could have easily
been mistaken for an SEIU strike vote, a contract ratification
meeting, or an organizing rally involving some portion of the
UHW's statewide membership of 150,000. Since a few workers even
wheeled in the disabled people they care for in neighboring
homes, it also looked like a union protest against state budget
cuts,
The gathering of African-American,
Asian, and Latino home care workers, nursing home aides, and
hospital employees was convened for another purpose, however.
Their call-and-response chants were not directed at any recalcitrant
employer or tight-wad Republican governor. Instead, UHW members
were venting against top officials of their own union.
"What do we want?"
Someone with a bullhorn shouted. "Democracy!" the
crowd responded. "When do we want it?" The answer,
delivered by all present, was a thunderous: "Now!"
And that was before they broke
into another spirited chant, reminiscent of Bay Area protests
past: "Hey, hey, ho, ho-Andy Stern has got to go!"
Andy Stern is, of course, the
powerful, high-profile and increasingly heavy-handed president
of SEIU. Much to the chagrin of many of his members, he and union
democracy are like oil and water.
On March 27, the day before
their Oakland rally, UHW rank-and-filers awoke to a headline
in The San Francisco Chronicle that read: "SEIU Leader Moves
To Oust West Coast Dissident." The article reported that
Stern was preparing to put UHW under "trusteeship"-a
form of labor organization martial law in which local elected
leaders are replaced by Stern appointees from Washington. Since
he became SEIU president, in the mid-1990s, Stern has named trustees
to run the affairs of many locals. Originally, his professed
goal was to root out corruption and promote organizing. But,
more recently, scores of SEIU affiliates have been merged, restructured,
and saddled with un-elected leaders so Stern can exercise greater
personal control over their dealings with politicians and employers.
(For SEIU's public sector members, these are often one and the
same.)
In UHW, there are no crooks
in need of ousting and
the local's membership recruitment
record has been exemplary, Between 2001 and 2006, UHW added nearly
65,000 new members-more than any other SEIU local in the country.
Nevertheless, in a March 24
letter-clearly designed to lay the legal groundwork for a take-over-Stern
accused UHW of violating the national union constitution by "developing
a secret plan to destabilize and decertify bargaining units."
As part of this conspiracy to "sabotage" SEIU, UHW
members would become part of a breakaway "independent union"
formed in alliance with the AFL-CIO and the California Nurses
Association. (CNA is a longtime rival of SEIU, now affiliated
with the AFL; SEIU left the AFL in 2005 and formed Change To
Win, a rival federation.)
The main target of any trusteeship,
based on such false charges, is UHW President Sal Rosselli. He
is a well-known Bay Area labor activist and past supporter of
myriad progressive causes. Since resigning from SEIU's national
executive committee so he could speak more freely-as he is entitled
to do under the Landrum-Griffin Act-- Rosselli has turned his
local into a hotbed of dissent. He has criticized Stern's leadership
in Labor Notes, on Democracy Now, and in major newspapers like
Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and New York Times. Meanwhile,
UHW has launched a lively website (www.seiuvoice.org) to stimulate
internal debate about the need for "real member participation"
in SEIU and a more democratic, bottom-up approach to building
the union.
As The Chronicle noted on March
27, Rosselli is trying to generate grassroots support for reform
proposals at SEIU's national convention in Puerto Rico, June
1-4. There, Stern's critics say they will push for a Teamster-style
direct election of top union officers, so all 1.8 million SEIU
members can vote on the leadership, instead of a just a few convention
delegates every four years. UHW also wants to give local unions
more protection against forced mergers which dilute membership
control. Critical of recent deal-making by Stern and his associates,
SEIU dissidents also want to insure that workers have a stronger
voice on the bargaining committees and "unity councils"
that deal with large multi-state employers.
According to Rosselli, Stern's
threatened trusteeship over UHW is simply "retaliatory because
we are speaking out against his ideology, his direction. The
simplest way I can say it is, it's top down versus bottom-up,
corporate unionism versus social unionism." Based on its
size, UHW is entitled to have one the largest delegations at
the convention. But, if Stern puts UHW in trusteeship between
now and June, none of its 146 elected representatives will be
able to attend-or lobby other delegates about democratizing the
union's structure and functioning.
Fellow SEIU dissidents, now
organizing nationally in a group called SMART-SEIU Member Activists
For Reform Today-would have a much more harder time getting other
union officers and stewards to engage in reform activity. That's
why Rosselli accuses Stern of using the UHW trusteeship threat
"to eliminate his political opposition."
In a March 27 statement, Rosselli
disclaimed any intention of encouraging membership decertification
from SEIU. UHW reasserted its public position that, "despite
profound disagreements" with Stern's leadership, "leaving
is not an option. SEIU is OUR union, that's why we're fighting
to change it." At the anti- trusteeship rally in Oakland,
Rosselli proudly introduced an organizing committee member from
St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, California, where 600
service and maintenance workers had just voted to join the
union. Due its membership growth around the state, UHW is negotiating
new contracts for 75,000 hospital and nursing home workers this
year alone.
Given such a heavy bargaining
calender-and the challenges UHW faces from various employers-its
elected rank-and-file board members are very concerned about
the chaos, division, and disruption that will ensue if SEIU tries
to oust them and Rosselli--plus purge their local's most experienced
staff reps and organizers.
Their concerns are clearly
shared by others in California labor who've worked with Rosselli
for years-even union officials who disagree with him and leftists
who doubt his sincerity as a union reformer. For example, Mike
Casey, a prominent Bay Area trade unionist who heads Local 2
of the Hotel Employees, has ignored the usual protocol that "members
or leaders of other unions should not interfere in the internal
disputes of another union" and issued an open letter about
the UHW-SEIU rift. In his March 28 missive, Casey addresses,
among others, his own UNITE-HERE national officers-Bruce Raynor
and John Wilhelm. They both joined Stern in launching Change
to Win three years ago, after subjecting AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney to withering public criticism-of the sort Stern now objects
to when directed at him by Rosselli and others within SEIU!
"I believe that there
must always be room within organized labor for legitimate and
principled dissent, if our movement is to survive and ultimately
grow," Casey says.
"The questions and issues
raised by Sal meet the threshold of such dissent[These] are matters
that must be addressed by any union looking to organize on a
large scale. The public discourse initiated by UHW and Sal may
well be kicking up a lot of dust, but it has also provoked a
closer examination of the direction of our movement."
To date, Casey notes, SEIU
spokespeople have responded to Rosselli largely with personal
attacks and claims that "his behavior is 'shameful,' 'unprincipled,'
and 'dishonest.' " Says the HERE leader: "The Sal Rosselli
I know is anything but shameful, unprincipled, and dishonest."
And he goes on to heap praise on Rosselli and UHW for their concrete
expressions of solidarity and support when Local 2 members faced
a "two-year war"--the strike and lock-out that roiled
the local hotel industry in 2004-6. "
"Such a union and leader
has more than earned the right to air objections to union practices
without being vilified or demonized."
Nevertheless, in some daily
press coverage-and the spin of SEIU media handlers-the UHW affair
is still depicted as a narrow conflict between Stern and Rosselli,
both veterans of Sixties student activism, now unfortunately
feuding over the perks of late middle-aged institutional power.
Conversations with UHW rank-and-filers suggest that they see
it differently-as a much broader fight that they didn't start,
but have a huge stake in. "We're on a mission to hold Andy
Stern accountable" says UHW board member Eloise Reese-Burns,
one of the thousands of nursing home workers that Stern wants
to transfer-against their wishes--to a Los Angeles-based local.
"We believe that the rank-and-file should be involved in
making contract demands and helping to raise our contract standards.
Andy's just a bully-but he's going to find out that it's not
a good idea to piss off the union people who pay your salary."
Ella Raiford, another African-American
leader in UHW who belongs to SEIU's national black caucus (AFRAM),
is equally vehement. Speaking March 22 at a meeting in Berkeley
attended by sixty-five SEIU dissidents from locals around California,
Raiford noted that there were many in the room "who've worked
long and hard over the years to have a democratic union."
Now, "Andy Stern is telling us where we have to go and
what we have to do-and we don't have any say in the matter. It's
time for us to stand up and say, "No!'
Applauding the formation of
SMART-and UHW's own alternative vision for the union-Raiford
called on her fellow reformers "to make a real 'change to
win" for our members, so they're have a voice in the union."
"We're going to find," she predicted, "that a
lot of people in SEIU want to be part of that 'change to win.'
"
Steve Early worked for 27 years as a Boston-based
international union representative and organizer for the Communications
Workers of America. In the 1970s, he aided reform movements in
the United Mine Workers, Steelworkers, and Teamsters, He is currently
working on a book for Cornell ILR Press on the role of Sixties
radicals in American unions. He can be reached at Lsupport@aol.com
|
Now Available!
How the Press Led
the US into War
Buy End Times Now!
New From
CounterPunch Books
The Secret
Language
of the Crossroads:
HOW THE IRISH
INVENTED SLANG
By Daniel Cassidy
WINNER
OF THE
AMERICAN BOOK AWARD!
Click Here to Buy!
Cassidy
on Tour
Click Here for Dates & Venues
"The Case Against
Israel"
Michael
Neumann's Devastating Rebuttal of Alan Dershowitz
Click Here to Buy!
Saul Landau's
Bush and Botox World
with a Foreword by Gore Vidal
Click Here to Order!
Grand Theft Pentagon
How They Made a Killing on the War on Terrorism
The Occupation
by Patrick Cockburn
Humanitarian Imperialism
By Jean Bricmont
CITY BEAUTIFUL
By Tennessee Reed
|
