Letters

>Archive - PWW Print Edition Archive - 2002 Editions - Jan 12, 2002


 

Mayor’s race begins to boil

African American civil rights leaders presented a list of demands for the mayoral candidates in the Jan. 19 election.

Lee Alcorn and Rev. L. Charles Stovall gathered a group of reporters at City Hall to present the list developed by a large number of civil rights organizations and individuals.

The list called for strengthening the Living Wage ordinance and assistance in economic development for African Americans. They demanded that municipal authorities take a hand to end domination of drug interests in parts of the city.

The coalition of African American organizations and citizens did not make an endorsement in the mayor’s race, but the spokespersons said that candidates Domingo Garcia and Laura Miller had signed on with “very little disagreement.”

Insurance executive Tom Dunning had refused to sign and said that it was “offensive” that he had been asked.

The civil rights group demanded that the mayoral race stop being a “popularity contest” and take on real issues.

A reader
Seattle WA


Movement for peace and jobs

Readers of the People’s Weekly World in South Chicago are among the leaders of a community peace campaign here.

On Oct. 24, an initial discussion was organized at the local library entitled “Is War the Answer? Will bombs stop terrorism; will bombs stop the coming depression?”

The room was packed with community activists including steelworkers, clergy and church leaders. A committee followed up with meetings at the local Steelworkers Union Hall and circulated a peace-and-jobs petition.

A committee of seven, mostly trade unionists, presented hundreds of signatures at a meeting with Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Dec. 17.

The petition called for bringing those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks to justice before an international court; an end to the bombing of Afghanistan; stop the billion-dollar giveaways to corporations; protect Social Security and create jobs by passing the Steel Revitalization Act (HR-808) and the Rebuild the Infrastructure Act (HR-1564).

Jackson said that his vote for the war in Afghanistan was limited to finding the perpetrators of Sept. 11. “It was not a vote for an open-ended war,” Jackson said.

Jackson is a co-sponsor of both economic bills. Moreover, he proposed a high-speed rail network, which he said would put steelworkers to work and provide new jobs.

The next meeting will be Jan. 14. For information, call (773) 370-7769.

Beatrice Lumpkin
Chicago IL