Targeting Unions in Colombia

Dispatches From the Edge

Targeting Unions in Colombia

By Conn Hallinan

There are lots of places in the world where you need to
watch your step. You don't want to be a Sunni in a
Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad (or vice versa). It's
probably not smart to speak Tamal in southern Sri
Lanka. You might want to keep being a Muslim under
wraps in parts of Mindanao. But most of all you don't
want to be a trade unionist in the U.S.'s one remaining
ally in South America, Colombia.

'Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world to
be a trade unionist,' says Jeremy Dear, chair of the
British trade union organization, Justice For Colombia
(JFC), 'In fact, more trade unionists have been
murdered in Colombia during [Alvaro] Uribe's presidency
than in the rest of the world over the same period.'

In April, the Colombian Trade Union Confederation
reported that the first part of 2008 saw a 77 percent
increase in the murder of trade unionists.

One of the latest victims was Luis Mayusa Prada, a
union leader from Saravena. On Aug. 8, two men pumped
him full of bullets-17 to be exact.



Prada was the third member of his family to be assassinated by right-wing
paramilitaries. His sister Carmen Mayusa, a nurse and
leader of the National Assn. Of Hospital and Clinic
Workers, is on the run from death threats.

Prada, who left behind a wife and five children, was
the 27th unionist to be murdered in 2008 and joins
3,000 others who have been assassinated in the past two
decades. Only 3 percent of the cases have ever been
solved.

The fact that so many cases go unsolved is hardly
surprising. The perpetrators work hand-in-glove with
Colombia's police, military and, according to recent
revelations, President Alvaro Uribe and his political
allies.

According to the Washington Post, the head of Uribe's
secret police, who also served as the President's
campaign manager, was arrested for 'giving a hit list
of trade unionists and activists to paramilitaries, who
then killed them.' Fourteen of Uribe's supporters in
congress have been jailed for aiding paramilitaries,
and 62 others are under investigation.

There is an unholy trinity between the government, the
Colombian military, and multi-national organizations
that has reduced the number of trade unionists from
more than three million in 1993 to fewer than 800,000
today.

Nor is there any question why trade unionists are the
target.

Starting in the 1990s, foreign owned companies began
investing heavily in Colombia. From 1990 to 2006,
according to a recent study by Al Jazeera, direct
foreign investment increased five-fold, making up 33
percent of the national earnings. In 2007 that jumped
another 30 percent.

A major impetus for this influx of foreign capital is
the push for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the
U.S., an initiative begun under the Clinton
Administration forms a centerpiece for the Bush
Administration's Latin America policy.

Most trade unionists have resisted the influx of
foreign investment because it has led to the
privatization of government-owned services, such as
hospitals and water systems. Unionists also fear that a
FTA will wipe out Colombia's small farmers and
manufacturers, as it has done all over Latin America.

Cesar Ferrari, an economist as Bogotá's University of
Javeriana, says a FTA will benefit consumers, 'because
prices will decrease,' but 'the producers, usually
small farmers will lose out' because they cannot
compete with subsidized U.S. goods.

Democrats concerned with labor rights are currently
holding up approval of the FTA.

When unions and small farmers protest, the death squads
appear, sometimes egged on by Colombia's political
leaders. When Colombia's Vice-President Francisco
Santos recently accused trade union members of links to
'terrorists,' he essentially declared open season on
unionists

Multinational corporations are also tied to the
paramilitaries. Chiquita Brands International admitted
to paying over one million dollars to the United Self-
Defense Forces of Colombia, the umbrella group for
right-wing paramilitary death squads. Trade unionists
have filed suits against the huge multinational food
giants, Nestle and Coca Cola, charging that the
companies have helped to target trade unionists for
murder.

'There are tight relations between the government, the
paramilitaries and corporations,' Renan Vega Cantor, a
professor of history and economics at the University of
Pedagojica told Al Jazeera. 'The industrialists,
commerce, land owners and TNCs [transnational
corporations] were all behind the paramilitary groups.'
] The U.S. has supplied more than $5.5 billion in aid
to Colombia, the bulk of which goes to the military.
Britain also supplies and trains the Colombian
military.

Both countries are training the notorious High Mountain
Battalions (HMB), an elite force that, according to
Dear of JFC, has been directly linked to human rights
violations. 'International groups such as Amnesty
[International] have denounced the killing of trade
unionists at their hands, while Colombian human rights
defenders have documented the gross and systematic
violations carried out by the HMB, including torture,
murder and the disappearance of numerous civilians.'

The JFC recently protested a meeting between British
Foreign Office minister, Kim Howells and HMB commander,
General Mario Montoya. Howells responded by accusing
JFC of being linked to the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia (FARC). Howells withdrew the charge under a
barrage of criticism. 'Such ill-informed remarks could
put at risk the lives of trade unionists, journalists
and human rights defenders involved in projects
supported by Justice For Colombia,' Dear points out.

JFC also demanded that British Foreign Secretary David
Miliband investigate whether Britain may have trained
Colombian army troops implicated in a series of 30
assassinations. Miliband has yet to respond to the
organization.

According to a Washington Post examination of civilian
deaths, the Colombian military has been killing
civilians they then claim are guerrillas. Since 2005,
according to the United Nations, murders of civilians
have sharply escalated. The Uribe government has
doubled the size of the Colombian military, making it
the second largest on the continent.

'We used to see this as isolated, as a military patrol
that lost control,' Bayron Gongora, a Medellin lawyer
for the families of victims told the Post, 'But what we
are now seeing is systematic.'

The Colombian Inspector General's office says most of
the victims are marginal farmers, or even people
kidnapped off the street. Vice Inspector Arturo Gomez
told the Post that the increase in civilian deaths
reflects the intense pressure Uribe has put on the
military to come up with elevated body counts. A UN
investigation found that the Army carries extra
grenades and firearms to plant on victims.

Besides trade unionists, political activists, and
random farmers, indigenous groups are targeted as well.
On Sept. 28, a death squad murdered Raul Mendoza, an
indigenous governor, and former member of the Council
of Chiefs of the Regional Indigenous Council (RIC). Two
other indigenous leaders, Ever Gonzalez and Cesar
Marin, were assassinated as well.

According to RIC, Mendoza had warned local authorities
that he had been threatened for criticizing the
government's lack of concern for the poor, and for his
support for striking sugar cane workers. Some 18,000
sugar workers are on strike for higher pay and improved
working conditions. Currently sugar workers work seven
day a week, 14-hours a day.

Mendoza was murdered the day after Uribe charged that
the sugar workers were linked to FARC.

The U.S. is currently expanding its presence in
Colombia. The Colombian weekly Cambio says the U.S. is
planning to move its military base from Manta, Ecuador,
to Palanquero, 120 miles north of Bogotá. In 1998, U.S.
mercenaries based at Palanquero rocketed a village in
Eastern Colombia, killing 18 civilians. The base was
also instrumental in Colombia's March attack on a FARC
camp in Ecuador that drew widespread condemnation
throughout the region.

The Palanquero base houses up to 2,000 people and can
handle up to 60 planes on three airstrips.

The move, however, has generated opposition in
Colombia. 'A decision of this caliber would have
serious repercussions for our foreign relations,'
former Colombian Defense Minister Pardo Rueda told Teo
Ballve of NACLA Report. 'The possible base would
reinforce the opinion that the decisions of Colombia
are subordinated to the north,'

The U.S. also recently reactivated its Fourth Fleet,
which according to the Navy will conduct 'varying
missions including a range of contingency operations,
counter narco-terrorism, and theater security
cooperation activities' in Latin America. Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva sharply condemned
the move and warned that Brazil might consider
responding by putting its navy on alert.

With the exception of Colombia, and U.S. support for
the 2002 coup in Venezuela, the U.S, preoccupied with
its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,.went through a period
of military disengagement from Latin America, But that
military footprint growing once again. Given the loss
of its traditional bases in Panama, it will have to
find friendly countries in Latin America, a rare
commodity these days, to host its bases. Even if
Washington felt inclined to criticize Colombia's human
rights record-and to date it has shown no such
inclination-it is even less likely to raise the issue
when it is looking for a new base.

Hence the killings go on.

'This climate of constant violence must end,' says Guy
Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade
Union Confederation representing 168 million workers in
155 countries. 'The workers of Colombia are crying out
for respect of their most basic rights, as enshrined in
the fundamental ILO [International Labor Organization]
conventions ratified by Colombia.'

Socialized health care by Alan Maki

Socialized health care continues to be evaded by advocates of health care reform even though anyone who takes the time to question people on a door-to-door basis in any working class community quickly finds out that when given choices which include socialized health care this is the choice of many people… more than those supporting single-payer universal health care, and far more than Clinton’s or Obama’s “plans,” which in fact are for maintaining the status quo with insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies reaping huge profits.



Of course all this controversy on what should be the obvious solution is a lobbyist’s dream come true.



Physicians for a National Healthcare Policy (PNHP), in spite of their excellent work in support of single-payer (and what they call) universal national health insurance--- rather than “single-payer universal health care”--- has contributed to the growing confusion and misunderstanding around finding solutions to this present health care mess created because the interests of profiteers has been placed before the health care needs of people.



Even HR 676 will require substantial “tweaking” before it measures up to what can be called real single-payer universal health care; and here we need to be very honest in what most people are assuming HR 676 is; when people are asked what they think HR 676 is, they believe it is based on the system in Canada which is very well defined by the Canadian Health Act (anyone can “google” up the Canada Health Act). In fact, HR 676 falls far short of the Canada Health Act.



I would suggest to anyone who is concerned with truthfully finding out what the American people want, they do what we did in Roseau County, Minnesota and take ALL proposals to the people and allow the people to explain what it is they want. We went door-to-door to hundreds of homes in very economically diverse communities and found the overwhelming majority of the people saying, “We want what they have in Canada.”



This is what people described as what they were looking for:



No-fee, comprehensive (from pre-natal to grave), all-inclusive (everything from mental health to nutrition and eye and dental together with including heavily subsidized prescriptions), single-payer universal health care; publicly funded and publicly administered with the majority of people saying hospitals should be owned by the government and doctors should be paid a set salary by the government.



We then took what people said they wanted and drafted a resolution to be considered by Roseau County DFL precinct caucuses (Republicans were asked to submit the same resolution to their precinct caucuses in Roseau County but refused. Roseau County DFL Chair Ley Soltis who is employed by Marvin Windows and Doors, the largest non-union employer in Minnesota, tried, along with DFL State Senator LeRoy Stumpf and State Chair, Brian Melendez, to undermine our efforts to get an open debate on this issue.



Even many members of the Minnesota Universal Health Care Coalition which is dominated by middle class (as distinct from working class) and business elements tried to undermine our efforts--- including PNHP researcher Kip Sullivan initiating a vicious anti-communist, red-baiting campaign in true Hubert Humphrey fashion on behalf of Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor party leaders Mike Hatch and Matt Entenza, in fact Entenza--- who at the time was the Leader of the Minnesota DFL House Legislative Caucus was forced to withdraw from his campaign for Attorney General largely because of his role in initiating this this dirty vicious anti-communist campaign which included setting up anonymous blogs accusing people of being “pedophiles and child molesters” while knowing full well they were indulging in a campaign of dirty, hateful lies… but, such are the politics of middle class politicians who find self-amusement in such “sport.” The actual blogs were found to have been created by a DFL party activist employed in the offices of the Attorney General for the State of Minnesota--- at the time, Kip Sullivan’s friend, Mike Hatch. To this day there have been no prosecutions and these disgraceful blogs remain on the Internet; the filth was allowed to enter the Minnesota Universal Health Care list serve by its Democratic Party moderator and these dirty filthy messages still remain on Minnesota Universal Health Care Internet site.



In spite of all of this, the Lake Township DFL precinct caucus passed this resolution which simply stated delegates were for: “No-fee, all-inclusive, comprehensive single-payer universal health care; publicly financed and publicly administered.” Delegates made themselves very clear that “no-fee” meant “no premiums.” It was understood that there would be no “economic” test to qualify for health care. It was understood that health care would be financed in the exact same manner as Social Security and that the most significant burden of financing health care should fall to the corporations and business.



Between the precinct caucuses and the Roseau County DFL Convention this resolution went “missing.” In spite of this resolution going missing, a motion was made to suspend the rules of the Roseau County DFL Convention for the purpose of considering this resolution which then passed unanimously without any noted opposition only after numerous amendments were brought forward for everything from free prescription medications to doctors being placed on salary all of which were not accepted as friendly amendments simply because the majority of the hundreds of people we talked to in our door-to-door campaign had not given us any clear indication they were fully in support of these measures. Anyways, again, this resolution passed unanimously without any noted opposition or abstentions recorded in the minutes.



Again, someplace between the Roseau County DFL Convention and the State DFL Convention, this resolution from Roseau County together with the exact same resolution from seven other county conventions, all went “missing.” In spite of these shenanigans, the MN DFL State Convention passed, by a 72% majority, a resolution I wrote, calling for “single-payer universal health care” and within hours of its passage, DFL candidate for United States Senate Amy “Republican Lite” Klobuchar announced on Minnesota Public Radio that she would not be supporting “single-payer universal health care” in any form including HR 676.



This is what we get when labor fakers, middle class “intellectuals” and professors, along with doctors, lawyers and pharmacists are allowed to dominate politics. On such an important and vital issue which is quite literally a life and death issue for many Minnesotans and other Americans, politics is turned into a middle class sport where words are distorted and the wishes of the people are manipulated to serve the self-serving interests of a bunch of corrupt politicians like Amy “Republican Lite” Klobuchar, Mike Hatch and Matt Entenza.



Many of those who tried to undermine the struggle for support of real single-payer universal health care in Minnesota then turned to supporting legislation drafted by State Senator John Marty for political expediency and first tried to palm off his “Minnesota Health Act” as single-payer universal health care, which it is not. In fact, the proponents of the legislation make the claim that it will only save Minnesotans from 5% to 15% percent from their present health care costs; but even this claim is dubious because the proponents have been so dishonest that they do not even provide any facts and figures to back up their claims and, like with the Wall Street “bailout,” no one from the media asks to see the facts or figures and those who started out promoting this scheme under the guise of single-payer universal health care now admit that the “Minnesota Health Act” is not single-payer universal health care… not because they have any scruples, but because they were challenged by Minnesotans who want real single-payer universal health care as articulated in the resolutions like those passed by DFL County Conventions.



That politicians and middle class “intellectuals” who view politics as sport lack the political and moral integrity to honestly bring all ideas on health care into the marketplace of ideas demonstrates they have a complete disdain for democracy and lack of respect for working people--- many of whom have been denied access to health care and are forced into bankruptcy trying to get well.



We see the very same games being played out in Internet chat-rooms, on list serves and by organizations like “Progressives for Obama” headed up by the darling of the AIPAC lobby, Tom Hayden and labor leaders who talk about “middle class values” because the lifestyles they lead--- like doctors and those making big money off of health care--- have more in common with deceitful and muddle-headed uncaring middle class professors who decide to dabble in politics as sport because playing touch football is too tough for them.



I agree we must rally behind HR 676 but we must clearly articulate that we want HR 676 revised to be brought in line with the Canada Health Act so that Americans get what they really want--- nothing less than what the Canadians have without paying a single penny more.



It is good that doctors have taken some initiatives through the PNHP, but what is really needed is for working people experiencing the problems with this abysmal health care system which places profits above the health care needs of people to speak out.



When a full, open and honest debate is finally allowed to take place--- more than likely such open debate itself will have to be vigorously fought for--- I believe we will find that the majority of the people in this country--- the working class--- will come down on the side of socialized health care; but, without a full public debate free from the vicious red-baiting incited by middle class intellectuals and bookworms who see politics as “sport,” together with the American Medical Association which has always seen in socialized health care some kind of insidious Bolshevik plot, health care for working people will be nothing more as going from illness into the abyss of poverty as they struggle for survival from pay-check to pay-check--- for those lucky enough to have a job.



To me, the tell-tale sign that most of these doctors and middle class intellectuals are less than sincere about real health care reform is the fact that they turn their heads in indifference to, and turn their backs on, the more than two-million Americans forced to work in the smoke-filled casinos of the Indian Gaming Industry at more than 450 casinos strung out across this country--- workers who get fired for coming down with lung, cervical and skin cancers, heart and lung problems; workers forced into employment without any rights under state, federal or tribal labor laws by the very same politicians who are now concocting all kinds of convoluted schemes to evade providing Americans with the health care system they want: just what the Canadians have.



There are those, like the author and book-smart distinguished anti-communist middle class lawyer and intellectual, Kip Sullivan, who accuse me of undermining efforts to bring about single-payer universal health care by advocating socialized health care when in fact those like Kip Sullivan are afraid to defend their whacky schemes like the proposed Minnesota Health Act brought forward for the political expediency of corrupt politicians who have a complete disdain for working people except at election time when they need their votes and then there is no shortage of big promises made who have no intent of doing anything other than what the lobbyist with the biggest bribe is telling them to do.



Time and time again Brian Melendez the State Chair of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party prevented me from bringing up the health care issue for full debate before the State Central Committee. And, Melendez sought to nullify the resolution in support of single-payer universal health care, first by refusing to post the resolution on the official MN DFL web site along with the rest of the Action Agenda; but then, Chair Melendez using as his cover, the DFL Progressive Caucus, re-wrote the resolution to state “affordable universal health care.” Dirty, dirty politics no matter from which angle the situation is viewed, and socialized health care has yet to be brought into the public square for a full hearing… so much for democracy.



Then we had the vicious racist attack by Green Party spokesperson Rhoda Gilman on Jeff Hayden--- the only Democratic Party Candidate for the State Legislature publicly supporting HR 676. Gilman’s statement was published on David Shove’s “Progressive Calendar:” “Jeff is a nice, friendly guy, obese, and neither energetic nor very articulate.” A very typical racist smear against one of a very few African-Americans seeking public office in Minnesota from a middle class intellectual who writes “coffee table” history books for her middle class friends to set out when they want to pretend they have an understanding of Minnesota history. One has to ask, what does anything in this statement from Rhoda Gilman provide which might encourage unity in support of single-payer universal health care after the election. Gilman never took issue with a single political issue over which she might have disagreements with Hayden… yet, this highly acclaimed and noted author carefully chose her words to attack Jeff Hayden in this very disgusting racist manner--- Hayden is a concerned citizen and first-time candidate for the state legislature contesting for the seat previously held by one on Minnesota’s most distinguished progressive legislators, Neva Walker, an African-American woman who has been one of the most ardent supporters of single-payer universal health care legislation.



I have come under attack for calling this written statement from Rhoda Gilman “racist.” Those attacking me claim the statement was “merely inappropriate.” Racist” or “inappropriate,” there has been no apology from Rhoda Gilman, the middle class intellectual, who always knows what is best and good for working people even when it means destroying two-thousand union jobs by demolishing the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant where many of the workers just happen to be people of color who at present have health care insurance compliments of a union contract, so that in its place can be established what Rhoda Gilman envisages in her middle class mind a model “green community” which will only include racially segregated upscale housing and poverty wage jobs. Is there not a pattern here to Gilman’s racism which is as obvious as the racist patterns for housing, education, employment and recreation established for the City of St. Paul by generations of racially bigoted politicians making pretensions to being “progressive,” including current Mayor, most of the City Council and the Board of Education along with the Planning Commission? Rhoda Gilman is so arrogant she had the unmitigated gall to help draft a Green Party proposal in support of demolishing the St. Paul Ford Twin Cities Assembly Plant without even having the moral and political courage, not to mention the respect to approach Ford workers to find out what they thought of losing their jobs to such a scheme before releasing this scheme to the public.



You know, I have to wonder how it is that these middle class intellectuals who fear discussing socialized health care have no second thoughts or qualms about writing about Jeff Hayden as Rhoda Gilman has done… I think there is something kind of racist and anti-working class in just have the audacity to think that writing such a statement would go unchallenged.



I would also point out that many, many working class people are intimidated from making their views known and running for public office because of the sentiments “articulated” by Rhoda Gilman. Whether or not one is fat or thin; articulate or not or how energetic they are as seen through the eyes of middle class snobs like Rhoda Gilman has nothing to do with the issues.



I wonder how Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney would feel should she find out about how Rhoda Gilman, speaking for the Green Party in writing this statement about Jeff Hayden, would feel and what her reaction might be?



That I would become the target of further vitriol and rage on the part of middle class intellectuals and their small business associates says a great deal about such people because they don’t even have the courage to insist that Rhoda Gilman apologize for this pathetic and disgusting behavior. Of course, these same people try to pawn off the Minnesota Health Act as being single-payer universal health care when it is the farthest thing from such and no bunch of middle class intellectuals free from the daily struggle of survival is going to convince me, or bully me, to back down from what I think about this no matter how many profane telephone calls, threats or insulting e-mails I receive.



I agree with the comment of the writer of this posting to the Internet list serve--- Portside; although I think the time to start pushing hard is right now because no matter who gets elected the needs of working people for single-payer universal health care as a first step towards socialized health care remain the same urgent requirement. It was largely on this issue of health care reform that I decided to forego voting for Barack Obama and cast my vote for Cynthia McKinney, but, no matter what candidates we choose to vote for, or if people decide not to vote at all, in the end we need to be united on the need for real health care reform which requires nothing short of single-payer universal health care:



3.Re: Comment on Krugman's "The Real Plumbers of Ohio"
From: Dave Ecklein

Peter Belmont's comment on Krugman's "The Real Plumbers of
Ohio" is very apt. I hope someone posts to his question
about the extent of government subcontracting and what it is
really costing us. More of it may be coming, whether from
the Republicans or the Democrats.

A looming example of this can be found in health care.
Everyone these days seems to be for "universal health care",
and all is well with that sentiment until you look at the
details of their proposals. Both candidates, and many health
care reformers, are suggesting different ways to preserve the
current private insurance based system through government
subsidies. This in an effort to promote "universal access"
of some kind. It really is government insurance for the
continued existence of an inequitable and wasteful system.
Currently the private insurance company overhead amounts to
about 30%, ten times that of the Medicare/Medicaid systems.

The way they are set up now, even the Medicare and Medicaid
systems are in effect subsidizing the private health
insurance outfits by removing the most medically costly
sectors of the population from their pools, leaving the
privateers to cherry-pick among the healthiest sectors.
These government systems should be subsumed in an expanded
and improved Medicare system, completely replacing private
insurance for medically necessary expenses. The details have
been worked out in the gold standard for health care reform,
HR-676, in Congress now, introduced by Rep. Conyers and
supported by 93 congressional cosponsors at last count.

We are already paying for over 60% of the health care
delivery in this country through our taxes; a far higher per-
capita cost than most other advanced countries having
universal single-payer systems. But we are not getting it.
Most indices of US public health and health care assign a low
ranking (according to World Health Organization, of 190
countries, US ranks 37th in health care systems, and a
whopping 72nd in public health).

The next administration will have to be pushed hard to make
good on their promises of universal health care. Sham
solutions (subsidizing and further ensconcing private
insurance) will not do; we must rally behind HR-676 and
single-payer.

See www.pnhp.org for more details on HR-676 and the single-
payer movement.

Dave Ecklein

Workers face many accumulated problems, mainly financial

General strike brings Greece to halt in protest over government policies



http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibtUiBczDhWBa5O9OtszQkLmAZmA



General strike brings Greece to halt in protest over government policies
2 days ago

ATHENS, Greece — Air, rail and ferry traffic have ground to a halt across Greece and many offices have shut down in a general strike.

The country's largest labour union has called the strike to protest the conservative government's economic policies. Riot police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of rock-throwing hooded youths as thousands of demonstrators marched through central Athens.

Many shops along the demonstration route rolled down their shutters, and only minor damage was reported.

Across the country, state hospitals functioned with emergency staff while state schools, universities, post offices and tax offices were closed, as were many banks.

Some 200 domestic and international flights were cancelled while all ferries were confined to port. The state railway company cancelled most train services. Lawyers, journalists and civil engineers were also on strike.





http://www.gmanews.tv/story/128467/General-strike-brings-Greece-to-standstill


General strike brings Greece to standstill
10/21/2008 | 09:07 PM


ATHENS, Greece - Air, rail and ferry traffic ground to a halt across Greece on Tuesday and public offices shut down as workers walked off the job in a general strike to protest the conservative government's economic policies.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of rock-throwing hooded youths as thousands of demonstrators marched through central Athens. Many shops along the demonstration route rolled down their shutters, and only minor damage was reported.

Across the country, state hospitals functioned with emergency staff while state schools, universities, post offices and tax offices were closed, as were many banks. Some 200 domestic and international flights were canceled while all ferries were confined to port and the state railway company canceled most train services. Lawyers, journalists and civil engineers were also on strike.

Greece's largest umbrella union, GSEE, claimed hundreds of thousands of workers participated in the 24-hour strike.

"The country has effectively come to a halt," said union spokesman Efstathios Anestis. "Participation is very high, in many sectors it exceeds 90 percent of the work force."

Demonstrators held banners calling for the minimum salary to be raised to €1,400 (about US$1,880) from its current level of €701 (about US$940) and for the government to cancel unpopular reforms to the country's pension system.

Some also protested a recent rescue package under which the government pledged up to €28 billion (US$38.5 billion) to help Greece's banking sector weather the international financial crisis.

"Not one euro to support the capitalists," read one banner.

GSEE, which covers the private sector, and civil service umbrella union ADEDY called the strike to protest recent legislation reforming the country's fragmented pension system. The new law, passed in March, cuts back early retirement rights and merges lucrative pension funds with financially troubled ones.

"We're expressing anger, despair and rage about the policies which give to the few," said GSEE leader Yiannis Panagopoulos.

The two umbrella unions represent some 2.5 million workers between them, or about half of Greece's total work force.

Unions also demand more state social spending, as well as salary and pension increases, and oppose the government's privatization plans, including for state carrier Olympic Airlines.

"Workers face many accumulated problems, mainly financial," Anestis said.

Air traffic controllers walked off the job for four hours from noon, leading Olympic to cancel 150 flights — mostly domestic but including routes to London, Brussels, Rome, Frankfurt and Paris, and private Aegean Airlines to cancel 46 domestic flights.

Athens public bus and metro networks were disrupted by work stoppages, while the capital's tram service was suspended for the whole day.

Commercial stores were to follow suit with their own strike on Wednesday to protest tax laws, vowing to shut down stores across the country for the day. - AP









http://www.winnipegsun.com/News/World/2008/10/21/7153466.html





From the Winnipeg Sun:



Tue, October 21, 2008

General strike brings Greece to halt
Protest over government policies


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS



ATHENS, Greece — Air, rail and ferry traffic have ground to a halt across Greece and many offices have shut down in a general strike.

The country’s largest labour union has called the strike to protest the conservative government’s economic policies.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of rock-throwing hooded youths as thousands of demonstrators marched through central Athens.

Many shops along the demonstration route rolled down their shutters, and only minor damage was reported.

Across the country, state hospitals functioned with emergency staff while state schools, universities, post offices and tax offices were closed, as were many banks.

Some 200 domestic and international flights were cancelled while all ferries were confined to port. The state railway company cancelled most train services. Lawyers, journalists and civil engineers were also on strike.







http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_293189.html



Oct 21, 2008

Greece sees general strike



ATHENS (Greece) - AIR, rail and ferry traffic ground to a halt across Greece on Tuesday and public offices shut down as workers walked off the job in a general strike to protest the conservative government's economic policies.

Riot police fired tear gas to disperse a small group of rock-throwing hooded youths as thousands of demonstrators marched through central Athens. Many shops along the demonstration route rolled down their shutters, and only minor damage was reported.

Across the country, state hospitals functioned with emergency staff while state schools, universities, post offices and tax offices were closed, as were many banks. Some 200 domestic and international flights were canceled while all ferries were confined to port and the state railway company canceled most train services.

Lawyers, journalists and civil engineers were also on strike.

Greece's largest umbrella union, GSEE, claimed hundreds of thousands of workers participated in the 24-hour strike.

'The country has effectively come to a halt,' said union spokesman Efstathios Anestis. 'Participation is very high, in many sectors it exceeds 90 per cent of the work force.'

Demonstrators held banners calling for the minimum salary to be raised to euro1,400 (about S$2,784) from its current level of euro701 and for the government to cancel unpopular reforms to the country's pension system.

Some also protested a recent rescue package under which the government pledged up to euro28 billion to help Greece's banking sector weather the international financial crisis.

'Not one euro to support the capitalists,' read one banner.

GSEE, which covers the private sector, and civil service umbrella union ADEDY called the strike to protest recent legislation reforming the country's fragmented pension system.

The new law, passed in March, cuts back early retirement rights and merges lucrative pension funds with financially troubled ones.

'We're expressing anger, despair and rage about the policies which give to the few,' said GSEE leader Yiannis Panagopoulos.

The two umbrella unions represent some 2.5 million workers between them, or about half of Greece's total work force.

Unions also demand more state social spending, as well as salary and pension increases, and oppose the government's privatisation plans, including for state carrier Olympic Airlines.

'Workers face many accumulated problems, mainly financial,' Mr Anestis said.

Air traffic controllers walked off the job for four hours from noon, leading Olympic to cancel 150 flights - mostly domestic but including routes to London, Brussels, Rome, Frankfurt and Paris, and private Aegean Airlines to cancel 46 domestic flights.

Athens public bus and metro networks were disrupted by work stoppages, while the capital's tram service was suspended for the whole day.

Commercial stores were to follow suit with their own strike on Wednesday to protest tax laws, vowing to shut down stores across the country for the day. -- AP

Alan Maki announces intent to run for Minnesota Governor

Make way for the working class to have a say…

This enormous economic mess we are now experiencing, along with the heavy debt the bankers and the politicians of both major political parties have saddled us with, can be summed up very simply: The capitalists have taken all the profits and left the working class with all the problems.

There are only two sources of wealth: Labor and Mother Nature.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense understands that if you allow labor to be continually exploited and Mother Nature to be repeatedly abused and raped there will be severe consequences.

We are now reaping the consequences for allowing this parasitical monster of state-monopoly capitalism to have spun its web of corruption in the form of a cannibalistic military-financial-industrial complex which now threatens to consume and destroy our families, our communities, our State and our Nation while wreaking havoc in other lands.

Enough!

The time has come to put the needs of people before corporate profits.

There is only one alternative; for working people to come together to build a new society on the foundation created by the socialists of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party.

We need to fight and struggle to re-establish the liberal, democratic and progressive socialist traditions for which Minnesota is known around the world.

We have complex problems before us… but, any country which can spend trillions of dollars on wars to steal the oil of other nations, and trillions of dollars bailing out corporations and bankers looking for using socialism to solve the problems of their own creation as they have sought to prop up their rotten capitalist system--- which they have touted to the world as being the best--- at our expense… This Nation can now come up with the resources to use socialism to solve the problems for the rest of us, too.

What is good for the goose is, in this case, is even better for the gander.

Let Barack Obama and John McCain volunteer to go off exploring the caves of Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for Osama Bin Laden; we have better things to do.

Our first priority is to end these dirty wars for oil and redeploy those funds--- as we bring home the troops--- to creating a world class socialized health care system which will create millions of new jobs; five messes the money-grubbing Wall Street coupon clippers and their bought and paid for politicians created, all solved at the same time by ending these dirty imperialist wars for oil and regional domination--- we get health care not warfare, and we begin to solve the problem of unemployment--- and when we put people to work in this way we begin to create a new--- functioning--- people oriented, cooperative, socialist economy where democracy will flourish because it will require the full participation and involvement of all people working together in order to succeed.

Second, without further delay, we need to establish the State Bank of Minnesota to accomplish for our State what the State Bank of North Dakota was set up, by workers and farmers, to do--- fund enterprises to keep people working.

Third, we need a minimum wage which is a real living wage arrived at by the calculations of the United States Department of Labor and the Bureau of Labor Statistics in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development--- based upon the real figures relating to the real cost of living and this minimum wage should be required by legislation to be updated quarterly right along with the release of all economic indicators to assure a quality life and decent standard of living for all working people and their families.

We have finally come to the point where even the parasitic bankers and the exploiting industrialists now concede that only socialism can bail them out of this horrible mess and solve their problems... capitalism has reached the end of the line and the only thing now to be had from the system is unending human misery.

At the point where society has to pay to clean up the corrupt mess these parasitic predatory lenders and financial institutions have created, this is the time to say:

Enough!

What tax-payers finance, tax-payers must own.

If Warren Buffett and Goldman Sachs do not like these terms, these greedy pigs should make the trip to their off-shore banks in the Cayman Islands and make withdrawals from their accounts to pay to solve their own problems.

The time has come to roll up our sleeves, come together, and get to work quickly before this entire rotten system collapses---like the I35-W Bridge--- and crushes us all while leaving our children and grandchildren with the clean-up and the bills.

I firmly believe working people can run our country and our state better than any of the big-business politicians being funded by the corporate lobbyists.

Effectively using the tools of public ownership and nationalization combined with modern, scientific planning for the common good, we can put people to work in decent jobs at real living wages... we hear it all the time just before Election Day: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs... but we never see the jobs, and if we do, these jobs are poverty wage jobs no one can live on.

I intend to run for Governor of Minnesota in 2010.

I invite all working people who think that it is possible to create something better than the mess we are now in, to come together and work from where socialist Governors Floyd B. Olson and Elmer A. Benson left off in trying to create a just and decent society where people live and work in harmony with Mother Nature, to join with me, in establishing the Minnesota Party to give the bankers, the mining, forestry and power generating industries along with the industrialists and big-agribusiness a real run for their money.

Let’s run these parasites that have been living off of our labor and destroying Mother Nature right out of our state. We can get along just fine--- even better--- without them.

Alan L. Maki

Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

and

Candidate for Governor of Minnesota

Former member: Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party State Central Committee

Alan Maki made an interesting observation

On a list serve Alan Maki made this observation about the progressives for Obama:

This is really getting to be too much to swallow… these people have to be challenged… they are, quite literally, treating working people and their problems like shit… they treat politics as if it is some kind of middle-class sport.

I have to agree. I never did care for Tom Hayden and this crowd who always looked down their noses at working people.

I always thought Carl Davidson and Tom Hayden were snobs. The more I read of these Progressives for Obama the more convinced I am that I was right. They are both big-headed and superior to the rest of us.

During the 60's they drove a wedge between the youth and what they called old left. Oh sure they were the new left. Today they are still up to no good. They still run the same old con games practicing deception.

Rita

Attack ads

I am no Barack Obama fan.

But I feel I must say something about John McCain's ugly attack advertisements.

McCain and Palin are making much over Obama's association with Bill Ayers.

According to McCain and Palin the so called connection between Obama and Ayers is through the Annenberg Foundation.

The president of the Annenberg Foundation is none other than Leonore Annenberg. As it turns out Leonore Annenberg is a very avid and enthusiastic McCain/Palin backer.

I guess this makes McCain as guilty of "palling around with terrorists" as Obama.

Rita

Obama interviewed by Brokaw at private Goldman Sachs dinner last year

How much longer do we allow this farce to continue?

Obama, "progressive?"

Rita

Obama interviewed by Brokaw at private Goldman Sachs dinner last year

By Lynn Sweet on October 7, 2008

WASHINGTON--On May 3, 2007, Barack Obama attended an event at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan that was not on his public schedule and is only now surfacing--a private dinner for Goldman Sachs traders with a discussion on issues moderated for the Wall Street firm by NBC's Tom Brokaw.

Brokaw is the moderator of Tuesday's second presidential debate between Obama and John McCain at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.

The dinner was not a fund-raiser for Obama, then in the early stages of his Democratic primary campaign launched February, 2007. Brokaw interviewed Obama for about 45 minutes on mostly international issues. Brokaw received an honorarium, donated to charity. The Obama campaign called the event a "moderated conversation" when I inquired on Monday.


Brokaw's appearance was arranged through Goldman Sachs--not the Obama campaign. It was the only session Brokaw did for Goldman. Brokaw's honorarium was given to a charity.

The employees of Goldman Sachs collectively would go on to become the top contributors to the Obama campaign.

Bundled together, by Sept. 28, 2008, the latest figures available, Goldman Sachs members or their families contributed $739,521 to Obama, making the firm number one source of donors to the Obama campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. To be clear--Goldman Sachs did not make any contributions (that's not allowed by federal law)-- the money was from individuals connected to the firm. The CRP analysis is of contributions of $200 and more.

The sum does not include money raised by two major Obama fund-raisers: Bruce Heyman, an executive at the firm and James Johnson, a Goldman Sachs board member and former chairman and CEO of Fannie Mae, the failed mortgage giant in the news because of the subprime mortgage crisis that led to the economic collapse.

Johnson was originally tapped by Obama to lead his vice presidential vetting squad until he quit because of his own controversies.


An April 18, 2007 Bloomberg News article about top campaign bundlers noted that Obama addressed the Goldman's annual partners meeting 2006 in Chicago.