Sept. 17, 2005

NEW ORLEANS — Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated this region, and as they begin a valiant struggle to rebuild, people here are still fuming that the Bush administration was so tardy in coming to their aid.
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No one can say the Bush administration doesn’t have clear priorities. While the job of picking up the bodies of victims so they can be laid to rest is proceeding with agonizing slowness, plans to put in place a structure to reap maximum profits for corporate profiteers has gone ahead faster than Katrina’s 170 mph winds. And the long-term results for the region and the country may be just as devastating.

NEW YORK — As many as 200,000 people marched Sept. 10 in New York City’s Labor Day parade, including workers from all the city’s unions, anti-Wal-Mart activists, elected leaders, mayoral hopefuls — and People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo (PWW) distributors, who handed out 5,000 sample copies of the paper at the event.

If John Roberts is confirmed as chief justice of the Supreme Court, replacing William Rehnquist, he has a chance at heading the court for the rest of most baby boomers’ lives and much of Generation Xers’ as well.

LOS ANGELES — Peace activists here have accelerated their mobilization for national rallies and lobbying for peace on Sept. 24-26.

Union and community campaigners gathered at sites around California Sept. 10 to launch their drive to defeat a series of anti-people propositions placed on the Nov. 8 special election ballot by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his corporate allies.

An attempt by the Commonwealth Club to host a forum in San Jose, Calif., featuring representatives of the Minuteman vigilante border patrol has met with a firestorm of protest from area community and immigrant rights leaders, forcing organizers to cancel the event. Fueling the controversy was the scheduling of the program for the city’s Mexican Heritage Plaza on Sept. 16 — Mexican Independence Day.

As news of Hurricane Katrina’s ravages in New Orleans and the Gulf region shocked the nation, California Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-El Cerrito) Sept. 2 introduced a Joint Resolution calling for the return home of the California National Guard. By the time the legislative session ended Sept. 9, the number of co-authors, initially four, had grown to more than 20.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — One of the three “Bring Them Home Now” bus tours that started in Crawford, Texas, Aug. 31, when Cindy Sheehan and supporters closed up camp, stopped here Sept. 12. Members of Military Families Speak Out, Veterans for Peace, Gold Star Families for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War are traveling in caravans across the U.S., speaking out against the Iraq war and building support for a massive antiwar rally in Washington, D.C., Sept. 24, and a day congressional lobbying, Sept. 26.

LAWRENCE, Mass. — “Don’t let them violate your privacy,” said Martina M. Cruz to high school students and parents here as they arrived for the beginning of the school year.
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