Jan 11, 2003

CLEVELAND, Ohio: Northeast Ohio demands no war with Iraq / NEW YORK: One million Methodist women launch Mid-East peace campaign / PHILADELPHIA: Fifth largest U.S. city says ‘No war’ / DETROIT, Mich.: Injury to one is an injury to all / CANTON, Ohio: City Council to PBGC: ‘Pay steel pensions’

OAKLAND, Calif. – In one of its final actions of 2002, Oakland’s City Council on Dec. 17 became the 19th and largest city to issue a sharp rebuff to the USA Patriot Act. The Council’s resolution, calling on California’s Congressional delegation to actively work to repeal the act and related executive orders, passed by a vote of 7-1.

CHICAGO – About a hundred protesters of all races chanted and sang at a departure pavilion of the world’s busiest airport, O’Hare International, Dec. 30. Illinois Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues, Pueblo sin Fronteras and others organized the protest in response to an anti-immigrant operation at both this and Midway Airport.

BOSTON – Con la llegada del nuevo año la historia se hizo en esta ciudad de Nueva Inglaterra – Félix Arroyo, el primer latino de ocupar un escaño en el Concejo Municipal de Boston, se juramentó el Día de los Reyes, 6 de enero.

Opinion


As World War II was approaching in the years before 1941, I recall heavy debates at our kitchen table as a neighbor and my dad tossed down boilermakers (shots of whisky and beer chasers), often sitting in their undershirts, sweating profusely, on warm summer nights. The neighbor usually groused about Roosevelt “leading us to war.”

Dr. Thomas Mack, professor of medicine at the University of Southern California, has raised very serious questions regarding the smallpox vaccine assault of the Bush administration’s phony war on terrorism.

Opinion


Recently, I was considering the impact of cultural workers, musicians in particular, on the labor movement in light of the Dec. 16 Solidarity Rally in support of Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100, in New York City.

CLEVELAND – The United Steelworkers of America and International Steel Group Inc. (the company that bought bankrupt LTV) reached a tentative agreement for a new labor contract after months of negotiations.

Workers Correspondence


LORAIN, Ohio – After a two-month struggle, the steel company RTI/REP pulled its demand for a 60 percent tax abatement from the city here.

TEL AVIV – The double suicide attack that killed at least 23 people, mostly guest workers, and wounded about 100, at a crowded downtown street corner here, has in one stroke diverted public focus from the deepening election scandal involving Prime Minister Sharon’s Likud Party in ballot-rigging, bribery and corruption.