Sept. 10, 2005

WASHINGTON — Recovery workers began the grisly search for the dead in the flooded streets of New Orleans as Mayor C. Ray Nagin predicted that the toll from Hurricane Katrina may reach 10,000, the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
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Cindy Sheehan and several dozen other Gold Star family members, military families and veterans closed up their Crawford, Texas, encampment last week and fanned out in three whistle-stop tours across the nation, headed to the nation’s capital with the message, “No more lies, bring the troops home now.” They will join thousands expected in Washington, D.C., for a national Bring Them Home Now rally Sept. 24 and congressional lobbying Sept. 26, where they will press lawmakers to put a stop to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

EL PASO, Texas — Luis Posada Carriles, an anti-Cuba terrorist who is facing deportation from the United States, has withdrawn his petition for political asylum but reportedly still hopes to either remain in the U.S. or be deported to El Salvador, his last known place of residence.

We had a great Labor Day Parade — with all the unions, including SEIU and the Teamsters. In all, about 65,000 union members march in the ’Burgh. Pittsburgh is usually the third largest Labor Day Parade, behind New York and Detroit. This year we edged out Detroit!

Over 18,000 aircraft workers in Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Wichita, Kan., hit the picket lines Sept. 2 rather than accept takeaways insisted on by Boeing Corporation. The company took in $1.87 billion in profits last year, International Association of Machinists spokesperson Connie Kelliher told the World.

NEW YORK — AFL-CIO President John Sweeney was arrested along with over 80 others, including top labor leaders, elected officials and rank-and-file activists, in a civil disobedience action Aug. 31 supporting GSOC/UAW Local 2110, the graduate student workers’ union battling New York University for a contract.

The Communist Party USA reacted with outrage and sorrow to the tragedy inflicted on the people of the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina, a tragedy compounded by what it called the “slow motion” response of the federal government.

OWENSBORO, Ky. — As residents of Daviess County watched in horror as Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, they had no way of knowing how quickly they would also feel the impact of this disastrous storm — not in the form of tempests and gale-force winds, but in the form of rising gas prices.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.: Legislature passes Wal-Mart Accountability Act; CLAIRTON, Penn.: Steelworkers fight forced overtime; SAN FRANCISCO: Police arrest hotel workers; DETROIT: Motor City supports Northwest mechanics; PITTSBURGH: Workers demand boost in minimum wage

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, signing new land reform decrees last January, declared, “The war against the large estates is the essence of the Bolivarian Revolution. It’s land for the campesinos, land for the ones who work the land!”