Fight Back! - News and Views from the People's Struggle

Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP

Fight Back — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:03:03 +0000

Professor James J. Brittain's new book, Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia: The Origin and Direction of the FARC-EP (Pluto Press, London: 2010), is a thoroughly researched and documented academic study of the Colombian revolution and of its largest and longest lasting guerrilla organization, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP). This alone makes it almost unique. Add to this the fact that it is based on five years of extensive research in Colombia’s countryside, both with the FARC and with the rural population, and it becomes clear that we have a one-of-a-kind book. What this study amounts to is a systematic and thorough defense of the FARC, facing the myths and allegations against the FARC squarely and putting them to rest. On this point, the book is invaluable.

In the book’s forward, James Petras puts it well in discussing “the political practice of demonology,” whereby the FARC have been vilified and slandered to such an extent that such characterizations have found their way into most academic accounts of the FARC. As Petras says, “this is vice’s tribute to virtue.” Brittain’s book addresses the claims that the FARC are a degenerated ‘narco-terrorist’ organization, devoid of politics, just another criminal gang in a country that has been corrupted from top to bottom by the cocaine trade. A lengthy chapter of the book is dedicated to “the political economy of coca,” and concludes that, through “a nationally applied partial crop substitution model, accompanied by regions under total crop substitution,” the FARC is “not only preparing to act as a legitimate government in a socialist Colombia, but readying the population for a post-capitalist society not monetarily dependent on the coca industry” (114). Meanwhile, Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia systematically traces the connections between the paramilitary death-squads, the U.S.-funded Colombian government and the cocaine industry.

In the process of dispelling all of the myths and distortions that have been spread about the FARC, the book advances a number of points. First, it clearly examines the history of the FARC and shows that it is a thoroughly indigenous social movement with broad mass support. It examines the FARC’s ideological commitment to Marxism-Leninism and approaches the FARC’s policy choices and strategic decisions in relation to that commitment. Similarly, the book examines the FARC’s military and political structures and its relations to the broader urban and rural popular movements. It also thoroughly explores what Brittain terms “dominant class reactionism,” presenting a history of paramilitarism and far-right politics in Colombia, showing that these phenomena are a result of the success of the revolution, not the cause of the revolution itself. And finally the book shows that the FARC is winning.

For Colombia solidarity activists, Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia is a tool. In the battle of ideas against all of the U.S. ruling class justifications for continuing to give billions of dollars to the Uribe regime through Plan Colombia, or in opposition to the U.S. escalation in Colombia through its seven newly acquired military bases, this book is a weapon. For anyone doing anti-intervention organizing, whether around Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, the Philippines or any place where the U.S. is oppressing the people of the world and where the people are resisting by any means necessary, this book provides a valuable case-study.

Brittain concludes his Revolutionary Social Change in Colombia with a quote from a campesino who he asked if the FARC would succeed in its revolutionary endeavors. The campesino answers, saying, “The FARC are and have been winning for a long time…I would never say that the FARC will lose, but I will certainly tell you that the state and the elite that repress the people of this country will never win.”

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Protest Demands Moratorium on Foreclosures, Tax the Rich, No Cutbacks

Fight Back — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:22:25 +0000

St. Paul, MN - About 100 people gathered here Feb. 4 on the steps of the Minnesota State Capitol for a protest that coincided with the opening of the Minnesota State Legislature. The Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout organized the protest. Standing at the top of a giant banner reading, “Tax the rich, no cuts to poor and working people,” Angel Buechner of the Welfare Rights Committee led the chant, “Hey politicians, here’s the fix - tax the rich! Tax the rich!”

Linden Gawboy, of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, gave the first speech, stating, “The MN Coalition for a People’s Bailout has legislation for a People’s Agenda. We demand jobs or income now. If this state does not do the right thing and give us jobs - we need income. We want unemployment benefits extended. We want a moratorium on the five-year limit on welfare. We want the creation of a public works program to put people to work now. We call for no layoffs, no furloughs and no attacks on wages, for state and University of Minnesota workers and for all workers. Now is the time to be protecting jobs, instead of putting more people in the unemployment lines.”

Gawboy continued, “We are sick of seeing destruction that foreclosures and evictions cause in our communities. We call for a moratorium on home foreclosures and on evictions from foreclosed properties.” Many participants at the rally held signs calling for a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.

Mick Kelly, of the Minnesota Coalition for a Peoples Bailout said, “The economic crisis continues to hit poor and working people hard. Every month more jobs are lost and more homes hover on the brink of foreclosure. We are bringing the message to the politicians at the capitol that this is an emergency and something has to be done.”

He continued, “The rally is in support of House File 2604, which will place a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions of renters from foreclosed properties while the economic crisis is still hitting so many families.” Both HF2604 and its senate companion, SF2242 were introduced Feb. 4.

Charlene Wilford of the Welfare Rights Committee told the crowd, “To those politicians who just don’t get it, we say, ‘Get out here.’ Talk to the moms who have been surviving on $437.00 per month. Talk the homeowners who have given their blood, sweat and tears over the years, only to find themselves facing foreclosures by greedy banks. Talk to families whose unemployment insurance and welfare have hit their time limits.” The Welfare Rights Committee and the Coalition are promoting legislation that will place a moratorium on the five-year time limit on public assistance.

Trade unionists played a big role in the rally. Phyllis Walker, the president of AFSCME 3800 said, “We need to extend unemployment insurance in Minnesota. The homes of many of our union members are in jeopardy because their spouse is out of work and they cannot keep up the mortgage without unemployment payments.” Nearby, members of her local held the union’s banner.

Other labor leaders speaking at the rally included Bernie Hess, of the United Food and Commercial Workers and representatives of the SEIU Local 26, whose janitors recently authorized a strike.

Other speakers included representatives from the coalition’s youth, student, tenant, anti-war and immigrant rights member groups.

Deb Konechne of the Minnesota Coalition for a Peoples Bailout says that the coalition will undertake all out mobilizations to fight for justice at the capitol this legislative session.

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Campus Bus Drivers Fight for Fair Wages

Fight Back — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:25:51 +0000

Tuscaloosa, AL - Bus drivers, with the support of students at the University of Alabama (UA), are organizing a union campaign to win a living wage. The bus drivers shuttle students, football fans and others around the UA campus. Student activists are riding the buses to sign up student supporters for the bus drivers. The 62 Crimson Ride Shuttle Bus drivers work for FirstGroup PLC, a huge British multinational corporation. The union drivers and students are exposing the British company’s big ripoff of Alabama workers and taxpayers.

The bus drivers, most of whom are African American women, make only $9.50 per hour. This salary puts the drivers and their families below the poverty line. In May of 2009, the Crimson Ride Shuttle Bus Drivers at the University of Alabama unanimously voted to join the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 1208, but still do not have a contract. Without a contract there are few benefits. The drivers have no job security. There are no guidelines regulating termination. The drivers are paid nothing during university holidays. Many work two jobs to make ends meet.

The University pays FirstGroup PLC $55 per work hour - a huge profit of over $1 million a year. The drivers are demanding a living wage of $14 per hour - a fair wage comparable to other state university bus drivers. $14 per hour will raise them out of poverty. FirstGroup PLC has not yet agreed to a negotiating meeting with ATU Local 1208. If a contract has not been negotiated by May, the union will vote to take further action.

Members of UA’s Students for a Democratic Society chapter are working hard to promote student support for the bus drivers. Tia Brown, a Crimson Ride driver and union steward said, “Students have the power to put a lot pressure on the university to do something.” SDS has been flyering around their campus, as well as making announcements on the Crimson Ride buses, to inform other students about the driver’s union and their demands.

A member of SDS, Jenae Stainer, said, “African American workers continue to struggle for equality, especially here in the South where we have not yet overcome the history of racism. Though people may have moved from the back of the buses to the drivers’ seats, they still don't have the justice they deserve.”

UA students have shown a lot of solidarity with the hard working drivers, many agreeing to sign a petition in support of the drivers’ demands. SDS plans to have 1000 student signatures by Feb. 11. On that day, there will be a national call-in day for union proponents to demand that the president of the University of Alabama tell FirstGroup PLC to pay the drivers a living wage. The number to call on Feb. 11 is 205-348-5103.

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Janitors Vote to Authorize Strike in Minneapolis

Fight Back — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:16:35 +0000

Minneapolis, MN - On Jan. 30, hundreds of janitors, mostly Latino and East African immigrants, held a spirited meeting at the Minneapolis Labor Center and voted nearly unanimously to authorize a strike. When the strike vote was taken, the multinational crowd chanted and held up signs reading "Yes! Sí! Haa! Ee! Oui!" ('Yes!' in English, Spanish, Somali, Oromo and Amharic). With the strike authorization vote, the workers can now strike if the union’s negotiating committee decides a strike is necessary to win their demands.

The workers are members of the union SEIU Local 26, which represents over 4000 janitors who work for 18 different cleaning contractors, including ABM and Marsden. They clean office buildings in downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul, including offices for major banks, corporations and buildings such as Wells Fargo, US Bank, Target and the IDS Center. Their union contract expired Jan. 8, but according to union negotiating committee members, the employer is still uninterested in resolving negotiations quickly or listening to any of the union's key proposals.

At the strike vote meeting, union negotiating committee members spoke about the disrespect they get at the negotiating table, and why it was necessary to authorize a strike. A statement that the janitors' negotiating committee handed out at the meeting said,

We clean some of the biggest corporations in the world: Wells Fargo, which made $3 billion in the last three months of 2009 alone, US Bank, which made $1.8 billion last year, and Target, which made $2 billion last year...How long will we allow these corporations to use the recession as an excuse to make us settle for less and less, while they make more and more? Many janitors have seen their income cut by as much as 25% through wage reductions in the last two years and the cleaning companies are proposing to cut even more.

The union is fighting for ‘good jobs’ and ‘green cleaning.’ By good jobs they mean keeping the janitors' jobs as full time jobs, as opposed to the employer proposal to return most workers to part time. It also means keeping or improving workload protections that the employer wants to eliminate. The union's green cleaning proposals include changing overnight shift cleaning jobs to day shift jobs, which would save on energy costs while making workers' jobs better. Another union green cleaning proposal is to use more environmentally-friendly cleaning chemicals, which would also create a safer work environment for the janitors. The employer has not taken these proposals seriously, even though the green cleaning proposals would actually save them millions of dollars.

The employer has taken a hard line in negotiations because they seem to think they have the upper hand due to the bad economy and a mass immigration audit, or silent raid, that led to ABM firing 1200 Latino janitors late last year. This is similar to the mass immigration firings that happened in Southern California last year at Overhill Farms and American Apparel and that are part of a national wave of attacks on immigrant workers. Among the fired Latino janitors in Minneapolis were many union activists from Local 26. ABM replaced many of the fired Latino workers with African American workers brought in through a temp agency in North Minneapolis, paying them $2.50 an hour less than the rest of the janitors, and keeping them in 'temporary' status. The African American workers and the union have stood up against the employer's discriminatory treatment. 50 of the African American workers marched to demand that ABM pay them equally, including back pay. The workers also filed discrimination charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to try to bring the African American workers hired through Emerge Staffing up to the same wage as the rest of their co-workers.

In addition to the strike vote, the union is mobilizing workers and supporters to pressure the employer. Workers are organizing a different protest action every day to increase the pressure. A solidarity committee has formed to bring together other unions and organizations to support the janitors. A civil disobedience training is set for Feb. 6 so union supporters will be ready to take direct action in support of the janitors if necessary.

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Jacksonville Workers Rally Against Construction Bosses

Fight Back — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:55:42 +0000

Jacksonville, FL - Over 200 supporters of Jobs for Jacksonville rallied to protest Turner Construction's unjust and unlawful labor practices, Jan. 26. Union members from the Carpenters, IBEW, Boilermakers, Sheet Metal Workers and the Teamsters are waging a campaign against Turner Construction. Turner refuses to hire out-of-work construction workers in Jacksonville for the Duval County Courthouse building project. This is a blatant breach of Turner Construction's contract, which promised to provide many jobs for the economically hurting building trades people in Jacksonville.

After the workers rallied at the construction site, they marched over to Jacksonville's City Hall chanting, “Mayor Peyton sold us out, Turner get the hell out!” They rallied one more time on the steps of City Hall before flooding the City Council Chambers with red shirts reading “Jobs for Jacksonville!” During the meeting of the Jacksonville City Council, workers from many backgrounds and nationalities spoke, denouncing the council's failure to take action against Turner's breach of contract and threatening to return to the chambers with hundreds more if justice did not prevail and the workers' right to jobs was not respected, as per the contract that managers of Turner Construction signed.

The workers were joined by members of Gainesville Area Students for a Democratic Society, who traveled to Jacksonville to support them. The students came armed with demands that money go towards building jobs and education, not wars and occupation. When asked for the reason why he supported the rally, SDS member Jared Hamil replied, “These workers work harder than most, aren't given a living wage and are the first to lose their jobs during an economic recession. To not support these workers would mean turning your back on people who are struggling for the same things we're all fighting for. Companies like Turner Construction want to divide people so they can get rich while we fight each other. That's why students and workers should support each other in their struggles."

While some of the workers present at the rally were led by the managers of Turner Construction to believe that it was immigrant labor that kept them from being hired for the building project, leaders of the rally were quick to point out that unions should organize workers of all nationalities if they wanted to win and be treated with respect by companies like Turner Construction. If there was a problem getting jobs, then it was a problem the bosses created, not other workers, leaders of the rally said. John Parker, President of the Sheet Metal Workers Union Local #435 in Jacksonville, proposed that unions should organize all workers regardless if they are immigrants, because that's the only way to make sure the bosses hire people fairly and pay a living wage to everybody.

Overall, the rally proved how powerful workers can be once they band together. The workers of Jacksonville are one step closer to justice because of it.

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MN Foreclosure Moratorium at Senate and House Hearings

Fight Back — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:29:36 +0000

St. Paul, MN - The battle is under way to put a moratorium on home forecloses in Minnesota. The first legislative hearing on an bill to put a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions began with a joint hearing by State Senate Economic Development and Housing Budget Division and Health and Housing and Family Security Committee, Jan. 27 at the Minnesota state capitol.

Before the hearing, there was a news conference featuring legislators who are sponsoring the legislation - state Senator Scott Dibble and state Representative Jeff Hayden - along with Deb Konechne of the Minnesota Coalition for a People's Bailout and Leslie Parks, a Minneapolis woman who is resisting foreclosure took place before the hearing.

At the press conference, Konechne stated, "The legislation being sponsored by Senator Dibble and Representative Hayden and being heard this week is an initiative to protect working and low-income people from the worst effects of the foreclosure crisis as well as protect tenants in rental properties that go into foreclosure."

Konechne continued, "Low-income and working people did not create this crisis and we should not be losing our homes due to the economic crisis of the rich and powerful. The federal government is providing hundreds of billions of dollars to banks and corporations. Minnesota must take action."

The Minnesota Coalition for a People's Bailout, a group of community, labor and other organizations, has been working with a broad range of community organizations to win support for the legislation.

The act would put in place protections for tenants in rental properties that are foreclosed.

"Tenants should not be evicted from their homes just because the landlord loses the property. Because the Legislature prescribes the foreclosure and eviction processes in this state, it can revise those processes to protect tenants in their homes," said Peter Brown of Minnesota Tenants Union, who testified at the Jan. 27 senate hearing.

Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME Local 3800 at the University of Minnesota, also testified. "When working people are laid off and cannot pay their mortgage, they try to renegotiate their loan. But it doesn't work because banks and lending institutions do not negotiate in good faith. They simply go through the motions and then foreclose on the property. Why is that? Is it because the home owner who has been paying a note every month for the past ten years can’t be trusted to live up to the terms of a new agreement? Is it because the bank or financial institution will take such a huge loss they will have to close their doors. The answer to both is no."

The National Alliance to End Homelessness, in a January 2009 report, estimated that 1.5 million additional people in the U.S. would become homeless over the next two years. This is over and above the number who would experience homelessness without the effects of the economic crisis.

"With the unemployment rate staying high for some period of time, with the overall effects of the economic crisis, working and low income people and our communities need continued protection from losing our homes and stability," said the Bailout Coalition's Alan Dale.

The Minnesota Coalition for People's Bailout is planning a demonstration for Feb. 4, the opening day of the legislature. The bill for a moratorium on foreclosures will be formally introduced that day.

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Help the people of Haiti, reject U.S. military occupation

Fight Back — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:37:37 +0000

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by Professor Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson of the International League of People’s Struggle.

More than ever, the earthquake disaster in Haiti exposes the social vulnerability and devastation caused by two centuries of colonial slavery, debt bondage and modern imperialism. The capability of the people of Haiti to surmount the dire results of such a natural disaster has been undermined and debilitated by man-made disasters, inflicted by foreign debt, US military interventions and occupation, and US-imposed “free market” policies.

On 12 January 2010, a magnitude 7 earthquake shook the Caribbean nation of Haiti, its epicenter hitting west of the capital Port-au-Prince. The quake and its numerous aftershocks have wrought death and injury to a huge number of people and catastrophic damage to their homes and other vital infrastructures.

Current estimates put the death toll to at least 110,000, with some estimates saying that up to 200,000 have been killed. About 75,000 have already been buried in mass graves but tens of thousands still remain buried in collapsed buildings in the capital. Health facilities are overwhelmed by more than 250,000 wounded, with shortages of medical personnel and supplies hampering efforts to treat them. Estimates indicate that more than 2 million people have been rendered homeless, billions of dollars worth of public and private infrastructure have been devastated.

The people of Haiti are undergoing incalculably great suffering. We, the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) convey our deepest sympathies to the Haitian people for their loss and express our most heartfelt recognition of their plight. We join the people of the world in lending our wholehearted support to help ease their suffering and call on our member-organizations and allies to extend immediate rescue and relief support to the victims in Haiti.

In the face of the devastation, the people of Haiti have had to rely on themselves and have shown heroism in helping each other as they go through the rubble, digging with their hands and puny tools to pull out what they can of the victims, both survivors and dead. With hardly any government or international aid support effectively reaching them on the ground despite the speed of information and hype of international disaster response, the people have had to rely on themselves for getting much needed water and emergency supplies.

We salute the Haitian people for helping each other. We also praise the various private organizations and institutions who have been able to extend whatever help on an international scale. At the same time, we direct our strongest denunciation against the US government for deploying military forces in Haiti instead of the personnel of US civilian agencies that are trained and equipped for rescue and relief aid.

The US government's first prolonged reaction to the earthquake was to send in the US Marines and the Army's 82nd Airborne Division. This is the notorious force unit that had invaded Vietnam, the neighboring Dominican Republic in 1965, Grenada in 1984, Haiti in 1994 and Afghanistan. Under the preposterous pretext of providing security to the devastated nation, the US landed and deployed armed soldiers instead of civil rescue personnel and equipment, water and food.

The US military took control of the airport and blocked private relief organizations in order to make way for the flights carrying soldiers and military cargo in the crucial first week after the earthquake. Professional rescue teams from many countries were compelled to stay in neighboring Dominican Republic or elsewhere, because they were not given landing slots.

A French plane, carrying a fully-equipped field hospital, was prevented from landing by the US military. The aircraft of the UN World Food Programme was also blocked from landing food, medicine and water for three days, because the US gave priority to flights ferrying US troops and equipment and evacuating Americans and other westerners. On 18 January, a US military spokesperson admitted that they have distributed a measly 15,000 liters of water and 14,000 meal packs. And they had done so chiefly through air drops, prompting the people to complain, “We are not animals!”

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere where 80% of the population live in poverty. At its peak in 2008, the country's total foreign debt was at US$1.4 billion, about 40% of its GNP. It has been spending more in debt service than on medical services to the people. Worse still, about 80% of the debt was incurred during the corrupt dictatorship of François and Jean-Claude Duvalier. Ruling under the strings of the US government, the Duvaliers plundered and repressed Haiti, stashing millions of dollars in their private bank accounts abroad.

Haiti is currently occupied by UN troops and controlled by a puppet government installed after the US military kidnapped democratically-elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Decades of “structural adjustment” programs, under the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, have robbed the nation of the capacity to provide social services, produce enough food from the land and develop national industries. Since the late 1970s, these US-dictated programs have ejected tens of thousands of small farmers from the land and driven them to the overcrowded urban slums. A nation previously self-sufficient in grains and sugar is now importing rice and sugar, chiefly from the US.

It is utterly absurd and perverse for the US to invoke security as pretext for landing its military forces on a country which has long been laid prostrate by imperialist plunder and which just been devastated by the earthquake. Natural disasters have become one of the major pretexts for US military intervention and occupation in various parts of the world. It is the dastardly policy of the US government all over the world to militarize its every pretense at aid and relief assistance, to gain extraterritorial rights and to make propaganda for the acceptance of its military forces.

The ILPS calls on its member-organizations, its allies and the people of the world to extend their solidarity and support for the people of Haiti. Emergency support and relief activities by non-military organizations must be given full play, to help ease the suffering of those most affected. Long-term rehabilitation of Haiti must eventually be mapped out together with the Haitian people, in conjunction with respect for their national sovereignty and self-government.

The ILPS reiterates its call for the withdrawal of all US and other foreign military forces. We call on the American people to demand an end to US military occupation and intervention in Haiti and help reverse the course of US-Haiti relations. We can best help Haiti recover from the devastation of the 12 January earthquake by supporting the Haitian people's struggle for national self-determination against foreign military occupation and economic plunder.

University of Minnesota Workers and Students Rally to Demand Administration Chop from the Top

Fight Back — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:58:43 +0000

Minneapolis, MN - More than 75 workers, students and community supporters rallied at Morrill Hall, the central administration building here, Jan. 21, to oppose attempts by President Bruininks and senior administrators to balance the budget on the backs of staff and students.

Cherrene Horazuk, chief steward of AFSCME Local 3800, the union that represents clerical workers, told the crowd, “We all know that we are living through the worst economic crisis this country has faced since the Great Depression. But we also all know that we - the working people of this country - did not create this crisis. Yet, when it comes time to discuss state budgets and university budgets, the people in charge want us to bear the burden.”

Horazuk continued, “It has been said and it bears repeating that the layoff of every single public employee in Minnesota would not make up the budget deficit. This problem requires a real solution. Further impoverishing working Minnesotans is not the answer and must be opposed.”

Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME 3800, stated before the rally: “One of their plans is furlough days. President Bruininks told senior administrators that he intends to make staff take ten furlough days - unpaid days off - over the next year. This is a pay cut for hourly staff at the university and we can’t afford it. Pay and holidays are negotiated with the unions on campus and cannot be unilaterally dictated.”

Students also joined the noon protest. Grace Kelly of the University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society said, “This administration continues to make education unaffordable. Between 2000 and 2007, undergraduate tuition went up over 68%. The administration wants to pit students against staff by telling us it’s either tuition increases or layoffs. This is a false choice.”

Another speaker at the protest, Kim Defranco of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout said, “As we know, corporations and banks have gotten bailed out but we haven’t. We have to suffer with more cuts and cutbacks. We are sick and tired of being the scapegoats for corporations, institutions and politicians when the economy is in crisis. Now we are all in this together, whether we are workers, staff, students, families, the poor, we need to stand and fight back together. We need to demand enough is enough! Together we are stronger.

AFSCME Local 3800, which is a part of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, is among the organizations that will be participating in rally at the State Capitol Building Feb. 4, the opening of the Minnesota legislative session. That protest will demand an end to layoffs of public employees, the extension of unemployment benefits, a moratorium on home foreclosures and taxes on the rich to balance the state budget.

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Protest Opposes State, University Cutbacks

Fight Back — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:33:04 +0000

Chicago, IL - Over 200 workers, faculty and students at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) marched here, Jan. 21, to demand full funding for higher education and an end to threatened furloughs and layoffs. The rally was held outside the meeting of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. It was called by a coalition of unions, including SEIU and the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO), as well UIC Concerned Faculty, an ad hoc group, and student activists.

At the start of the semester, University of Illinois (UI) President Stanley Ikenberry announced furlough days and layoffs of administrators, faculty and staff. This is a result of the state failing to provide funds already allocated. Illinois has a state budget crisis that is second only to California. Since July 1, the state has provided the university with only $17 million of $436 million.

For weeks, departments have been meeting to respond. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has been pushed to announce that they will not be able to recruit new graduate students for the fall of 2010. Ikenberry has also announced that he will be forced to raise tuition by 10% next year as well.

The main fire of the protest was aimed at the state legislature. In fact, President Ikenberry and Board of Trustees Chair Chris Kennedy (son of Senator Robert Kennedy), came out to thank the picketers, spending about ten minutes shaking hands with everyone on the picket line.

But the coalition United In Campaign Against Budget Cuts (UIC ABC), had plenty of criticisms of UI and UIC management, as well. Judith Gardiner, a professor of English at UIC for 40 years, criticized top administration for having made their decisions on cutbacks before students or employees had any input. Speaking to the rally on behalf of UIC Concerned Faculty, she called for alternatives to the furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs to protect students and faculty and staff who are not at the top of the pay scales.

In preparing for the protest and to respond to the crisis, SEIU Local 73 held meetings with 200 members over the last two weeks. Regina Russell, a leader in the Patient Access department, a call center in the Medical Center, said that her management reported an all time record in work performance this past year. “We registered and verified insurance for half a million patients. With 60 employees, that’s about 50 a piece every working day. It’s more than double what we were doing a few years ago. Even then, the hospital was banking profit. Why should we have to take layoffs and no pay raises?”

GEO Organizing Chair Jes Cook, and Willie English, a service representative for Local 73 and former UIC employee, spoke to the rally, denouncing the failure of UIC to negotiate fair contracts. Both GEO and the clerical unit of Local 73 have been meeting with Labor Relations for months with no progress to report. GEO represents 1400 workers; Local 73 has three units currently without contracts, totaling 2500 employees.

Raucous chanting and speeches lasted for over two hours, including almost an hour in a freezing rain, displaying a spirit that promises to keep this fight alive.

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Homeland Security Harasses Haiti Activists

Fight Back — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:01:41 +0000

The U.S. government is stepping up its surveillance and harassment of U.S. activists in an attempt to intimidate them and dampen their spirits for the change we believe in. International solidarity activist James Jordan was returning from a two week trip to Haiti, on Jan. 7, five days prior to the terrible earthquake disaster. When his flight touched down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, flight attendants called out for “James Patrick Jordan” and asked him to come to the front of the airplane. Homeland Security came on board the airplane to escort him off.

Jordan said, “The agents put me up against a wall, kicked my legs apart and frisked me. They took me to a detention area, then a back room where two agents began going through all my papers, my cell phone and camera, all my bags, looking for Lord knows what?” Homeland Security was most interested in his notebooks concerning Haiti and Colombia.

The Haitian groups James met with organize against the grinding poverty, support workers’ rights and work to improve health care for the masses. Now hundreds of thousands of Haitians are dead in the earthquake and more will die due to poverty and lack of doctors and medicines. The U.S. government is responsible for the dire conditions in Haiti, holding the people down and suppressing any progressive change. In 2004, the U.S. military kidnapped President Aristide and overthrew his government. Aristide had disbanded the Haitian army a few years earlier to prevent a U.S.-backed military coup. President Aristide, a former Catholic priest, was making mild reforms to help the people of Haiti, but U.S. companies wanted privatization of the electric system and other services.

The Latin American Solidarity Coalition (LASC) in the U.S. sponsored Jordan’s delegation, and his Colombia work was the focus of the interrogation. Jordan said, “I told them that two of us were in Haiti representing the Alliance for Global Justice [AFGJ] and that, specifically, I worked with the Campaign for Labor Rights, a part of AFGJ. And I explained that AFGJ was part of LASC. They asked about Chuck Kaufman and what kind of work he did. They wanted to know his flight information and I told them I didn’t know what it was. They asked me about the other delegates and I told them that I didn’t know their flight information and that I didn’t feel comfortable giving them names and other information about those delegates and they ceased questioning about them.”

Chuck Kaufman, also on his way home from Haiti, was detained and questioned in New York City. Chuck said, “I told them I was in Haiti. They asked what other countries I've visited and what I did there. I described a trip to Hiroshima, Japan and swimming with nurse sharks in Belize. They dropped the subject.” Chuck was held for a couple of hours and missed his connecting flight, forcing him to spend the night in New York.

James Jordan continues, “They were very interested in the folder I had about the terrible situation with the Colombian prisons, political prisoners and human rights violations. I am working on a project to advocate for better conditions at La Tramacua prison in Valledupar, Colombia - a prison that is very overcrowded, rife with violence and intimidation aimed at the political prisoners and imprisoned guerrillas, where inmates do not have access to sanitary toilet facilities and have access to drinkable water only ten minutes a day. There was also information about the relationship of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in funding, advising and restructuring this and other maximum-security prisons in Colombia. We are calling for an investigation of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ relationship with these prisons and what responsibility it bears for the conditions that exist there. Everyone hears about the White House closing Guantanamo, but the U.S. government is overseeing terrible things in Colombian prisons.”

Jordan emphasized, “There was a flier for my speaking at the School of the Americas protest this [past] year that featured a picture of Lily Obando. Lily Obando is a political prisoner we support and campaign for. The agents asked about Lily Obando, if she was part of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC] or accused of being part of the FARC. I told them Lily is so accused, but the evidence against her is not credible. They seemed especially interested in notes I had taken from a Counter Punch article concerning the Valledupar prison in Colombia and the targeting of FARC members held as prisoners of war. I tell you the U.S. government is up to no good there.”

Lily Obando is internationally known for her recent report exposing the death squad murders of 1500 farm organizers and union members with FENSUAGRO. Obando is one of 7000 political prisoners and prisoners of war. Many are trade unionists, peasant organizers and community leaders; some are FARC and ELN guerrilla fighters, held by the Colombian government, many without trial.

There is a massive movement against the wealthy elite, including narco-traffickers, that rule Colombia. The U.S. government funds the notoriously corrupt Colombian military, giving it nearly $7 billion in the last ten years. The White House announced it is occupying seven military bases inside Colombia. This will expand the U.S. war in Colombia and threaten neighboring countries like Venezuela and Ecuador. Pentagon generals and the U.S. Southern Command direct the war that brings poverty, misery and death squads to the lives of Colombian peasants and workers. The U.S. Congress funds and covers for the most reactionary, corrupt and unsavory elements of the Colombian elite.

James Jordan, though a seasoned activist, said, “Certainly the process was intrusive, uncalled for and intimidating. I was unsure of what my rights were when they took me off the plane. I did not know if I should answer their questions or ask for a lawyer?”

Bruce Nestor, of Minneapolis, Minnesota and past President of the National Lawyers Guild, advises, “Homeland Security asserts an unprecedented right to search people’s papers and even the entire contents of their computers, when they cross the border back into the United States. In addition to treading upon constitutional rights to privacy and against unreasonable searches, much of this activity appears to be intelligence gathering directed at political activists traveling to countries which are actively challenging United States foreign policy. People need to know and assert their rights, to refuse to answer unwarranted questions and refuse consent to search of personal papers and electronics.”

We have heard from a number of activists and their families that they have been detained when returning from holiday trips abroad. The line of questioning is similar to the case of James Jordon where they are asked of political history regardless of the purpose of the trips the activists were taking. U.S. agents made insinuations and demanded answers that had nothing to do with the trips that these people were taking. It is clear the U.S. government is stepping up its harassment and repression of people organizing for fundamental social change.

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