Category Archives: National News/Commentary
Support Single-Payer Health Care
As Congress moves forward with reform of our costly and dysfunctional health care system, it looks increasingly less likely that a single-payer plan (like the Canadian system) has a chance. The health insurance industry and other large corporate health care providers are heavily lobbying Congress to preserve the current system, with a few reforms that will allow them to continue doing business. One ray of hope, though, is that we can advance the opportunity for those states — like California — who want to adopt this most efficient and affordable approach to universal health care.
Under a single-payer system, there would be government funding and administration, with private delivery of services. Patients could choose their providers, and doctors could determine treatments without first having to get permission from insurers, as currently is the case in our mostly private, for-profit system. Individuals would pay for their health care through payroll contributions — just like they currently do with their Social Security and Medicare payroll deductions. No one would be denied care, no exclusions based on pre-existing conditions would be allowed, and women could not be charged higher rates because they use the system more for maternity and preventive care — as happens currently in the private individual market.
A handful of states — California, Pennsylvania, Illinois and others — may be ready to seriously consider state legislation that would establish just such plans. California has already passed two separate single-payer bills, but Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed both. Advocates promise that they will pass another single-payer bill once the governor leaves office.
Rep. Kucinich wants to make sure that states can adopt their own single-payer plans. His amendment indicates that the single-payer system would “provide comprehensive health benefits to all residents of the State using progressive financing and provides measures to assure free choice of providers for covered services, to promote quality…”
Private insurers would not be able to offer insurance duplicating benefits provided under the state single-payer plan, and Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) would have to be non-profit entities. Sen. Sanders’ amendment, reportedly, is similar to the House amendment, which currently has 65 supporters. Support in the Senate is uncertain, but earlier this year 37 senators signed a statement supporting a “public plan option.”
It is difficult to predict exactly when these amendments will come up in committee, but please send your messages now urging your Congress members, especially the Democratic members of the House and Senate, to vote for these amendments and let their colleagues know of their support.
Health Care Debate Heats Up
Charleston Sanitation Workers Fight for Union Recognition
by Kerry Taylor
Labor Notes
Sanitation workers in Charleston are knocking on doors to drum up support for their battle to gain recognition for Local 1199B, part of the National Union of Hospital and Healthcare Employees- AFSCME.
On April 4, the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination during a 1968 sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis, the Charleston workers launched a door-to- door petition drive to raise awareness of their struggle and pressure the City Council to recognize the union.
City officials have offered to meet with any individual worker about their concerns, but maintain that the state’s right-to-work laws prevent them from negotiating with public sector employees. Union supporters counter that no South Carolina law forbids public employees from collectively bargaining.
Workers have complained of abusive supervisors, an ambiguous system of promotions that pits workers against one another, and treacherous working conditions.
One driver was blamed for an incident in which a falling tree branch pinned her in the cab and seriously injured her neck and shoulders. She was rushed back to work, as was a collector whose eyes were burned by chemicals that shot from a paint can as it was being compacted.
Until recently the sanitation workers had hoped to resolve these grievances through discussions with their supervisors. The discussions have provided a few token concessions such as new rain jackets, but little actual relief.
The workers have now concluded that establishing an employees’ organization with democratic rights to negotiate with the city is the only way to win some measure of equality and fairness.
“If you’re a public servant you deserve dignity, respect, and acknowledgment that you’re doing a service for the community,” said Richard Polite, a 12-year sanitation department veteran, who adds that the workers’ demands are not primarily economic but center on basic human rights.
“We’re overworked, underpaid, and disrespected. The people who are in charge of sanitation have got to realize that they’re dealing with human beings.”
While the City Council has the power to grant the union’s request, the decision likely rests with Mayor Joseph P. Riley, who enjoys considerable influence over the Council.
LEARNING FROM THE ‘60s
Since last summer, the workers have been meeting with Mary Moultrie and other leaders of a historic 1969 struggle. Forty years ago, Charleston was the center of a bitter 113-day strike by 400 hospital workers, almost all of them black women.
It drew strong support from Local 1199 and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and many civil rights and union activists viewed the strike as an indication of the potential for joining black power with labor militancy.
“There is more openness in Charleston today. It’s a different city,” acknowledges Moultrie. “But what drew me to the sanitation workers is that the day-to-day grievances are exactly the same as the ones we faced 40 years ago. This petition drive has brought those hidden grievances to the attention of the public.”
Area students and members of Longshoremen (ILA) Local 1422 have joined the workers in collecting more than 4,000 signatures.
“Our reciprocal approach to workers who are organizing is a lesson we learned well during our struggle,” said Leonard Riley of Local 1422 [a member of the SC Progressive Network], which was at the center of a nearly two-year international solidarity campaign to resist union-busting and to free five of its members- the Charleston 5-arrested during a picket line protest.
“We know that we have to be there for any group of workers like the sanitation workers who are doing what they do to earn a living and protect themselves on the job,” he said. “No one does it in this political and economic climate on their own.”
Labor, Community Groups Take Aim at Gov. Sanford’s Real Misdeeds
By Tim Wheeler
People’s Weekly World
South Carolina AFL-CIO President Donna DeWitt [and Chair of the South Carolina Progressive Network] quickly brushes aside questions about Gov. Mark Sanford’s tearful admission June 24 that he flew secretly to Argentina for a week-long tryst with a paramour.
His aides put out the story that Sanford, an avid hiker, had gone for a long walk on the Appalachian Trail to clear his mind after losing several bruising fights with the legislature. It turned out to be a lie. Instead he had flown to Buenos Aires pursuing his love affair with an Argentinian woman named “Maria.”
The story is pouring out in sordid detail, including steamy emails between the woman and Sanford, married and the father of four children. There are reports that the Governor, a fiscal barracuda who slashes programs that serve the poor, flew three times to Argentina at State expense. During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Sanford, then a member of the House of Representatives, called on Pres. Bill Clinton to resign to restore “moral legitimacy” to the White House. He voted to impeach Clinton.
Yet DeWitt focuses instead on the other source of Sanford’s notoriety: His much publicized rejection of hundreds of millions of dollars in President Obama’s Economic Stimulus funds that South Carolina was to receive. The South Carolina legislature repeatedly overrode the Governor’s vetos of spending bills funded from the economic stimulus and a State Court recently overruled his rejection of the money.
“It’s a sad, sad story from a sad State,” DeWitt told the World in a phone interview from her office in Columbia, the state capital. “The Labor Council gave Sanford a 20 percent rating when he was in Congress. He slept on a futon in his Washington Office. But his door was open to labor. He came to the ILA picnic and brought his wife and kids. She comes from a very wealthy family and has always been his main political adviser.”
Sanford, she charged, “hasn’t been focused on running the State of South Carolina but rather on running for President. All the things he did flowed from his political ambitions.”
She stressed the dire economic crisis that afflicts the Palmetto State. “We needed the money,” she said, referring to the Obama stimulus funds. “Across the board we were looking at 20 percent cuts to our schools, tremendous cuts in healthcare. If he is truly the compassionate conservative he claims to be, those cutbacks would have been important to him but he put his political ambitions ahead of our schools and healthcare.”
His loud rejection of the economic stimulus funds, “was a political ploy. Don’t forget, John McCain invited him out to Arizona to discuss naming him his running mate in last year’s election. Sanford wants to make a name for himself.”
There are other scandalous facts about South Carolina not aired by the corporate media. “South Carolina ranks 50th in the nation in the number of women elected to public office,” DeWitt said. “South Carolina is the only state with no woman in the State Senate. We are always in the top five in the number of women killed by domestic violence. Our unemployment rate is 12.5 percent among the highest in the nation. In some rural counties, it is in the 20 percent to 25 percent range. We have rural counties that are just devastated and they desperately needed that economic stimulus money.”
The South Carolina Progressive Network (SCPN) and the State AFL-CIO organized a rally of nearly 4,000 people April 1 on the steps of the State Capitol to denounce Gov. Sanford’s grandstand play against the stimulus package. The multi-racial crowd held up pink signs with the message, “Pink Slip for Mark Sanford.” Banners proclaimed, “Recall Sanford” and “It’s Our Money: Jobs, Education, Healthcare.”
SCPN Executive Director Brett Bursey told the World he has known Gov. Sanford more than a decade and takes no satisfaction in his personal “tragedy.” But he too stressed that the overriding issue is the plight of hundreds of thousands of unemployed, and poor people in South Carolina as the economic crisis deepens. “We’re tops in the nation in unemployment,” he said. “Its over 12 percent. There were going to be severe cuts in services — critical services — even with the economic stimulus package, including severe teacher layoffs.”
SCPN, the AFL-CIO, and other allies responded by mobilizing the biggest protest demonstration to demand the stimulus funds of any state in the South.
Some in South Carolina believe Sanford cannot survive and will be forced to resign. He has already stepped down as Chairman of the National Republican Governors Association. Once considered a presidential contender, he joins U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. on the GOP’s lengthening roster of disgraced and discredited might-have-been GOP presidential candidates.
Diebold Voting Machines Should Give Us Pause
Tragedy, Hope and the Media’s Abuse of Power
By NOW President Kim Gandy
The news lately has been a roller coaster of extremes — shifting between hope and injustice, success and tragedy, gain and loss. The only consistent aspect is the major role the media play in telling these stories, and the abuse of their power to shape the news.
The murder of Dr. George Tiller has altered the foundation of security in women’s reproductive health care. Dr. Tiller dedicated his life to providing full reproductive health care for women, including safe and legal later abortions, in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas. He did this despite the environment of hostility and menace that surrounded him, brewed up by the radical right. The outpouring of grief and appreciation seen at the many vigils and memorial ceremonies was a testimony to Tiller’s dedication to women’s reproductive rights and the momentous impact he had on the lives of women everywhere.
He was not unaware of the danger: Tiller wore Kevlar to work, drove a bullet-proof car, and had previously been shot in both arms by another anti-abortion terrorist. Still, Dr. Tiller knew that as one of the incredibly few providers of later abortions in the U.S., he played a crucial role in the lives of the women he served. The walls of his clinic were literally covered with letters from grateful patients.
At the good news end of the spectrum, on May 26 President Obama nominated Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the next U.S. Supreme Court justice. Not only would Sotomayor be the third woman to ever sit on the high court, but she would also be the first Hispanic. Sotomayor’s landmark nomination reflects a much needed step forward for representation of women and people of color in the three branches of government.
Meet the South’s Coolest 8 Year Old
By Scot Quaranda
Campaign Director, Dogwood Alliance
A couple weeks ago, I ventured down to Charlotte, NC, to meet Cole Rasenberger, a happy, well-rounded eight year old with a serious passion for protecting forests. I wanted to briefly share his story with you and invite you to join him in taking action to protect the wildlife and forests of our region.
Cole contacted me in March asking how he could help protect North Carolina’s coastal forests. By the tone of his email I assumed he was in high school and so I sent him materials that I thought would be appropriate and talked with him about our fast food campaign.
A few short weeks later he informed me that he had received permission from his principal to get postcards signed by the kids at his school and developed an action plan that made him sound like a veteran organizer. It was also at this time that I received a “secret” email from Cole’s mom (pictured here with part of the team) letting me know that he is eight years old and really excited about this project. That blew me away!
By Earth Week, Cole had drawn four beautiful postcards, crafted a message to fast food corporate executives and recruited 24 friends to help him with the project. Over a three day period, Cole and his team stormed the school, doing presentations in every class, and got over 2,000 postcards signed to the fast food companies. The message was clear to the companies, “please be a leader for environmental change and protect our forests for my generation.”
Help Cole help protect our forests by taking action and asking fast food executives to use less packaging and more recycled paper in their packaging.
Every now and again something so inspiring comes along that you have to share it with the world and hope that it not only makes you smile but encourages you to do your part to help make this world a better place. I hope you will join Dogwood Alliance in helping make Cole’s dreams for a better world for his and future generations come true!
How Crowded is that SC Closet?
By Charlie Smith
Charleston, SC
The blogosphere is ablaze this week with pseudo-amazement that Andre Bauer, Glenn McConnell and Lindsey Graham might be gay. While we’re expressing our indignation/stirring the media pot on this subject, maybe we should just call up Nancy Grace and declare open season on all suspected closet cases. Then maybe we can get this outing thing over with once and for all…starting at the top. Jesus, for example, a confirmed bachelor at 33, was known to host at least one dinner party with twelve unattached men. Wouldn’t a straight man have done lunch at the club? But then Jesus never said a negative word about gay people, so maybe we should reconsider his case.
The only reason that anybody cares about the sexuality of Andre, Glenn and Lindsey is that everybody knows what jackasses they have been on every issue that has negatively affected the lives of LGBT South Carolinians in recent years. In other words, if these elected officials truly are gay, everybody knows that they will then richly deserve whatever comeuppance they get. These rumors are not new. Anybody who can perform a Google search will discover that Ketner’s comments are less than Earth-shattering. (See “Seven Minutes In Gay Hell” published in September 2007 by The Charleston City Paper)
Hopefully one day soon South Carolinians will realize the true harm they inflict on themselves when they elect and re-elect gay-bashing closet cases to public office. An elected official who has to waste time fortifying his closet to stay in power is by definition giving less than his or her full attention to the real problems of our state…not to mention being a sorry example of leadership. Linda Ketner’s point was that honesty and integrity are essential to both the public and private life of those who seek to serve our citizens.
Ketner has been open and honest about every aspect of her life and because of that she has been able to profoundly improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of South Carolinians…including yours and mine. If Andre, Glenn and Lindsey have something to hide, then they and others like them have made their own political beds by attacking gay people at every opportunity. If they are hiding something, they deserve whatever political retribution they get.
Broadband deal getting more study
Sides debating how to allocate broadcast capacity
By GINA SMITH
The State
A panel of lawmakers says it needs more time to study a proposal to bring WiMax, the latest in wireless broadband, to the Palmetto State.
Wednesday, the Joint Bond Review Committee sent to subcommittee a plan to lease ETV’s excess broadcast capacity to private companies, Clearwire and Digital Bridge Communications.
A contentious part of the proposal lets the state recapture 20 percent of the excess capacity if it’s needed in the future for yet-to-be-determined law enforcement, school or governmental needs.
Some lawmakers and residents say the state should hang on to more of the capacity. Others think the capacity could be worth more money.
“It sounds to me like we may be selling ourselves a bit cheap,” said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.
The S.C. Progressive Network said lawmakers should designate some of the capacity for free Internet for K-12 students and reduced-rate Internet for residents.
Members of a legislatively appointed study committee say they’ve negotiated the best possible deal for the state.
The companies will pay nearly $143 million to the state over 30 years. The companies would build WiMax networks, offering S.C. residents, businesses and others wireless Internet and, eventually, other uses, like interactive tools.
It would take 18 months to build a network, according to Clearwire.
The debate comes at a time when Clearwire is facing legal troubles.
Customers in four states, including North Carolina, are suing Clearwire, alleging the company is misrepresenting the reliability of its network and is unfairly charging early termination fees.
Clearwire is upgrading its network from an early version of WiMax to mobile WiMax.
Clearwire representatives have said South Carolina would get the mobile WiMax version.
It’s unclear how soon the subcommittee will report back. The State Budget and Control Board has the final say.