In This Issue
BERKELEY, CA-The Log Cabin Republicans have announced
they will be acquiring the recently felled oak trees from the controversial
grove on UC Berkeley property. Berkeley ordinance regulates the treatment of
coast live oaks over 6 inches in diameter in Berkeley. Patrick Sammon, head of
the gay Republican club, was delighted to report they had gotten all this hard
wood for John McCain.
“We will show that the gays can be lumber jacks.
We’re going to cut these trees up faster than Governor Palin can dress a
moose!”
When asked about Palin’s anti-gay church, beliefs,
movies, shoes and existence, Sammon replied they had much in common. “The
governor is our anti-fag hag. It’s time we moved away from the ultra left
“Will and Grace” model.”
by Conrad
In
Mid July a quite striking strike team of Naughty North affiliated queer
guerillas postered Portland red in a fiercely satirical poster campaign alluding
to the homophobic policies, steeped in the AIDS paranoia of the 80s and 90s, of
the American Red Cross. The poster
posse strolled around tacking up posters on the streets, community bulletin
boards and even an occasional business’s storefront window in broad daylight.
The posters looked like rather authentic outreach posters for a Red Cross
blood drive save the small qualifying text at the bottom stating: “No Faggots
Allowed.” So authentic looking
that once the local Red Cross office discovered these “disgusting and
offensive” posters, their PR machine kicked into high gear and actually
accused us of stealing their outreach posters and defacing them!1
The American Red Cross
states in their eligibility guidelines for blood donors:
“You should not give blood if you have AIDS or have
ever had a positive HIV test, or if you have done something that puts you at
risk for becoming infected with HIV.
You are at risk for getting infected if you:
- are a male who has had sexual contact with another
male, even once, since 1977.”…
This criminalization and
equating of queer sexual behavior with HIV/AIDS not only reinforces notions of
normalcy and acceptable “safe” sexual behaviors (heterosexual monogamy), but
perhaps shows the American Red Cross’s interest in capital over public health?
Instead of using blood
drives as an opportunity for free, anonymous, confidential, non-compulsory HIV
testing for all people, since all blood entering hospitals, research labs, blood
banks, etc must be tested anyways, the American Red Cross has chosen to exclude
already marginalized populations under the guise of public health and safety.
In the least, they should actually have culturally appropriate AIDS
awareness, prevention and PWA services information available.
The reaction to our
posters was swift, and within hours of going up, queer-feminist livejournal
communities were raging in debate and other blogs began to light up.
Someone from the Portland area had apparently ripped down a poster in
outrage and posted her story of stumbling upon the posters online.
She then brought it to the local news station.
Soon after, we had a tightly crafted polemic press release off to as many
media outlets as possible with David Wojnarowicz listed as the primary media
contact person.
In the days to follow we
watched the mainstream media gleefully try to tear “David” to shreds in both
print and video by deflecting our criticism as misplaced, as the FDA should have
been the real target as they mandate the no homo rule.2
Some reactions went as far as to suggest that the Red Cross was the
victim of an awful hate crime with our use of such misrepresentative and
offensive language! But the media
was playing into the game plan quite nicely, as they continued to attribute
quote after quote to David Wojnarowicz, a deceased notable AIDS activist from
the late 80s. We anticipated the
mainstream media coverage to be quite awful and unfavorable, so what better way
to make fun of it their inability to actually do their jobs than to make it
glaringly clear that they never check their facts!
a gleefully try to tear
“David” to shreds in both print and video by deflecting our criticism as
misplaced, as the FDA should have been the real target as they mandate the no
homo rule.2
Some reactions went as far as to suggest that the Red Cross was the
victim of an awful hate crime with our use of such misrepresentative and
offensive language! But the media
was playing into the game plan quite nicely, as they continued to attribute
quote after quote to David Wojnarowicz, a deceased notable AIDS activist from
the late 80s. We anticipated the
mainstream media coverage to be quite awful and unfavorable, so what better way
to make fun of it their inability to actually do their jobs than to make it
glaringly clear that they never check their facts!
If the American Red Cross
was actually concerned about the health and safety of the general public and
about “saving a life”, they would over turn their homophobic policies and
reject the Food and Drug Administration’s insistence on maintaining the queer
blood ban3,
publicly support comprehensive sexual education and actually educate the public
about infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS with culturally appropriate information.
Instead they cloud the issue with questionable policies and continue to
marginalize populations of people that have been devastated by AIDS and who
continue to see infection rates rise within their communities.
The American Red Cross can
be given no slack because they are a philanthropic organization.
Simply because they “save lives” does not get their polices off the
hook, nor does the excuse that they are just following orders.
They are only saving certain bodies and certain lives, while letting
others die. Institutional
homophobia is part of a larger network of violence that causes queer kids to
kill themselves. The American Red
Cross is a huge institution in the United States and across the world and must
be held accountable for their dubious policies.
And it’s not that we are
suggesting queers should go out and donate blood to the Red Cross who will in
turn hand it over to the US military or any of the numerous AIDS profiteering
“non-profit” hospitals. That
sounds about as logically sound as fighting to allow queers in the military.
This action aimed to bluntly illuminate the ways in which homophobia
still permeates even the most benevolent of institutions in really devastating
ways. Bottom line,
institutionalized homophobia is still killing young people everyday and the
American Red Cross has blood on its hands.
1 To create your own Red Cross parodies use the font
Arial Black, copy and paste their logo and trademarks from their website, and
have at it!
2 Targeting
the FDA would not have ruffled so many feathers nor started nearly as many
conversations as targeting the Red Cross. We
chose our target quite intentionally.
3
The toothless attempts by the American Red Cross and the American Association of
Blood banks to challenge these policies in the early 2000’s are not good
enough and their suggestions of a 12-month waiting period regarding queer sexual
contact still smacks of homophobia.
Del
Martin, one of the founding members of the Daughters of Bilitis and lifelong
lesbian activist died on August 27 at UCSF. She was 87.
Del, and her lover of 55
years, Phyllis Lyon, were instrumental in a number of critical struggles in the
fight for lesbian and gay rights, including the removal of homosexuality from
the list of mental disorders by the american psychiatric association in 1973. A
year after Betty Friedan denounced the “lavender menace” at a 1969
convention, Del became the first out lesbian on the board of the National
Organization for Women, NOW. She and Phyllis had been the first lesbians to join
the organization with a “couples membership.” In 1964 she helped form the
Council on Religion and the Homosexual, which lobbied for changes in anti-gay
laws. She was a founding member of the Lesbian Mother’s Union, the San
Francisco Women’s Centers, and the Bay Area Women’s Coalition.
DOB was founded in 1955 by
six women, and a year later, started “The Ladder,” a monthly magazine.
Phyllis was the first editor, and Del succeeded her in 1960. “We were fighting
the church, the couch and the courts,” Del said later. In the 1960’s, in
addition to work around lesbian and gay rights, Del and Phyllis fought against
police brutality, the Vietnam War and poverty.
In 1972 Lesbian/Woman was
published, not the first book on lesbians and the growing movement, or the most
radical, but certainly the most widely read and influential one. Del and Phyllis
wrote very candidly about their experience, and the experience of lesbians they
knew. Of Del’s male roleplaying in childhood games, they wrote, “But Del’s
masculine image was mostly fantasy. She was never what one generally thinks of
as a tomboy. She was never particularly athletically inclined, though she did
like to play basketball. ..It was a proud day when she got the cowboy outfit she
had longed for. It was complete with hat, boots, spurs, cuffs, holster, chaps
and cap pistol – all except the horse. But she was never man enough to master
the gun. She was frightened by the ban of shooting off caps and was forever (and
no one has been able to figure out how she managed this) getting her fingers
caught in the trigger and running home crying to mother or grandma to get them
extricated. To this day she hates guns – and the Fourth of July.”
Del married a man, James
Martin, during her third year of college, and had a daughter, which caused her
to drop out of college. After World War II, Del found herself in love with the
woman next door. They divorced, and after a brief attempt at “normalcy” by
sleeping with other men, Del recognized that she was a lesbian. “Del
contemplated suicide; others have attempted it, and some have succeeded. Because
of our own experience we are keenly aware of the identity crisis every Lesbian
must face: that period in her life when she is forced to come to terms with the
reality that she is at odds with the society in which she lives.”
Although butch/femme
gender roles were common in Del and Phyllis’s 1950’s lesbian community, in
Lesbian/Woman they wrote, “Our butch-femme relationship was perhaps less overt
than some, since Phyllis drove and Del didn’t (obviously driving a car is a
masculine thing); Phyllis could at least drive a nail relatively straight, while
Del had problems with anything like that. Both of us could (and did) cook, and neither of us liked to
wash dishes, clean house, or iron (so we seldom did).” Del and Phyllis
strongly viewed lesbians as women, and demanded that our struggles be included
in the women’s movement.
Del also was active in the
movement against domestic violence. In 1976, she published “Battered Wives,”
and she was a co-founder in 1975, of the Coalition for Justice for Battered
Women. In 1976 she helped to start La Casa de las Madres, one of the Bay
Area’s first battered women’s shelters.
Del and Phyllis campaigned
against the sexism of the male gay movement. In 1970, the Advocate and the
Ladder published Del’s essay, “Is That All There Is.” (We have been trying
to find a copy of the article to reprint, so if someone has it, please send it
to us.) But even in September of 1959, before Betty Friedan’s Feminine
Mystique “started” the women’s movement, Del, speaking at the Mattachine
convention in Denver said, “At every one of these conventions I attend, year
after year, I find I must defend the Daughters of Bilitis as a separate and
distinct women’s organization. First of all, what do you men know about
Lesbians? In all of your programs and your “Review,” you speak of the male
homosexual and follow this with – oh, yes, and incidentally there are some
female homosexuals, too, and because they are homosexual all this should apply
to them as well. ONE has done little better. For years they have relegated the
Lesbian interest to the column called “Feminine Viewpoint.” So it would
appear to me that quite obviously neither organization has recognized the fact
that Lesbians are women and that this twentieth century is the era of the
emancipation of women. Lesbians are not satisfied to be auxiliary members or
second-class homosexuals. So if you people do wish to put DOB out of business,
you are going to have to learn something about the Lesbian, and today I’d like
to give your first lesson.”
Del and Phyllis were
founders of the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club, in 1972. Del served on the San
Francisco’s Commission on the Status of Women from 1976-1979. In the 1980’s
Del and Phyllis were involved in the women’s health and AIDS movements. In
1987 Del received a doctorate from the Institute for Advanced Study of Human
Sexuality. Del was, and Phyllis remains, a member of Old Lesbians Organizing for
Change (OLOC), and in 1995 both were delegates to the White House Conference on
Aging, where they fought, despite strong opposition to ensure that “sexual
orientation” was included in one of the resolutions. At the conference, Del
spoke about her concern for the future of Medicare, the Older Americans Act and
Social Security, and identified herself as 75 years old, a grandmother, and the
partner of another WHCOA delegate. Del and Phyllis were part of the lawsuit that
resulted in the california supreme court requiring legal recognition for same
sex marriages, and Del and Phyllis were the first couple married at SF city hall
on June 16. Moonforce Media and
Woman Vision co-produced “No Secret Anymore: The Times of Del Martin and
Phyllis Lyon.”
Sometime in the mid-70’s
Del and Phyllis spoke in Seattle to a crowd sprinkled heavily with young
revolutionary lesbians, who were of course awed by Del and Phyllis’ history
and age (in their 50’s!), but not impressed by their militant struggle for
equal rights, when we were all trying to overthrow the patriarchy. But as we
left the room, mostly what was heard was “did you see Phyllis’ nails?”
Because, particularly in those days before the dawn of acrylic nails, they were
extraordinarily long for a lesbian. We shuddered.
Del and Phyllis have been
rightly honored by our communities for their long history of activism. But Del
was, and Phyllis is, much more than an historical object to be trotted out to
grand marshal at parades. Throughout their lives they have remained vital
members of the movements they have helped to create, both teaching, and learning
from, the activists around them.
Phyllis has asked that
donations in Del’s memory be made to the National Center for Lesbian Rights’
No on 8 PAC at www. nclrights.org/NoOn8.
by Kate
The conventions are
thankfully over and we only have to make it through another eight weeks of this
presidential campaign. So here’s
what we know:
Amy Goodman and 799 others
were arrested in St. Paul for trying to exercise their First Amendment rights at
the republikkkan National Convention.
Barack Obama has serious
charisma. John McCain can’t lift
his arms over his head because of being a POW in Vietnam. Michelle Obama has two adorable daughters.
Sarah Palin’s daughter, Bristol, is soon to be a teenage mom, and her
youngest son, Trig, has Downs Syndrome.
African Americans like
Obama and not McCain (news flash). White
men may vote for Palin’s husband, Todd, over Joe Biden.
Women who liked Hillary Clinton aren’t going for Palin – this
courtesy of erstwhile-revolutionary-turned-liberal-blogger Van Jones, who posted
interviews with his women friends on Huffington Post.
An ABC producer, Asa
Eslocker, was arrested during the Democratic National Convention in
Denver for trying to interview Democratic senators and donors leaving a private
event at the Brown Palace Hotel. Eslocker
said he was “working on a story on the role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy
donors.”
Arianna Huffington set up
a spa tent near the DNC, providing facials and other treatments to credentialed
journalists. Sharif Abdel Kouddous
reportedly got a massage there before getting arrested twice in St. Paul.
New Heights for Police State
In the aftermath of it
all, dozens of people remain facing felony charges in St. Paul (the legal
website doesn’t say if any are still in prison).
Eight members of the RNC Welcoming Committee are facing seven year
sentences for Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism. They are the first people ever charged under that statute of
Minnesota’s version of the PATRIOT Act. They
were not arrested in the streets; they were rounded up before the convention
ever started.
Dozens of activists
sustained serious injuries, from head wounds to taser barbs left in their bodies
and were denied medical care in jail – just like most people who end up
in jail. One young man was coughing
blood after police stepped on his chest. The jail medical staff told him that was “normal.”
It probably is normal, after someone steps on your chest.
Not only Amy Goodman and
two of her Democracy Now! producers were arrested; imprisoned journalists
included two journalism students from the University of Kentucky and their
faculty adviser, Rick Rowley of Big Noise Films, and a photographer for the New
York Post (who was heard yelling, “But we’re a Republican paper!”).
The Poor People’s
Economic Human Rights Campaign, which organized the March for Our Lives on
Tuesday, was also the target of a preemptive strike over the weekend.
An encampment called “Bushville,” which was providing outdoor housing
for convention protesters who couldn’t afford hotels, was evicted by police
and a number of organizers arrested.
At the much smaller
protests in Denver, 152 activists were arrested.
In advance of the convention, a local news station reported, “CBS4 News
has learned if mass arrests happen at the Democratic Convention, those taken
into custody will be jailed in a warehouse owned by the City of Denver.
Investigator Rick Sallinger discovered the location and managed to get inside
for a look. The newly created
lockup is on the northeast side of Denver. Protesters have already given
this place a name: “Gitmo on the Platte.”
“Inside are dozens are metal cages. They are made out of chain link
fence material and topped by rolls of barbed wire.
Each of the fenced areas is about 5 yards by 5 yards and there is a lock
on the door. A sign on the wall reads “Warning! Electric stun devices used in
this facility.”
St. Paul police raided the
offices of I-Witness Video, a New York-based group which documents police
misconduct. They claimed they had a
tip that “anarchists” were holding hostages in the building.
Presumably they knew that IWV had been instrumental in proving that the
NYPD illegally arrested hundreds of people during the RNC in 2004, which led to
the City spending over $8.2 million so far to defend and settle only 87 of the
640 claims against it. They
needn’t have bothered, though, since St. Paul officials insisted that the
local host committee buy an insurance police which covers the first $10 million
of lawsuits against the city.
The St. Paul/Minneapolis
police’s use of preemptive arrests and inflated charges during the
republikkkan convention was not unprecedented.
In 1984 when the Democratic convention was in San Francisco, a march of
about 100 people was surrounded on the first day and arrested for felony
conspiracy to block the sidewalk. The
cops hoped that would enable them to keep most of the rowdiest demonstrators
locked up for the week; the only reason it didn’t was that someone from the
Lawyers’ Guild knew a judge who believed in the right to protest and signed an
order to release everyone on their own recognizance.
In 2000, the Philadelphia police arrested counter-RNC organizers for such
felonies as walking with cell phones. Several
of them remained on trial for felonies for over a year. Anti-puppet raids were carried out on homes and convergence
spaces. Earlier that year, in
advance of the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington, D.C., cars were stopped on
the way into town and searched for puppets.
New York police arrested 1800 people during the RNC, compared with a mere
800 in St. Paul.
Nonetheless, the show of
force in St. Paul was an escalation. More
felony charges were filed, more press arrested, more advance raids carried out
using harsher commando tactics. And
for what? They didn’t need to
prevent all demonstrations from taking place. They could easily have blocked people from getting near the
convention center, as the Denver police did, and the Los Angeles and NY police
before them, by lining the marches on both sides and penning people in, setting
everyone on forced marches from one end of the designated parade route to the
other. Instead, they were busy
arresting bicyclists and independent journalists as Code Pink founders Medea
Benjamin and Jodie Evans – whose faces you might think would be slightly known
by now – were able to waltz onto the RNC floor and disrupt Sarah Palin’s
speech. (Watch the video at
CodePinkAlert.org.) More members of
Code Pink were able to disrupt McCain’s speech the next day.
The republikkans clearly
wanted to use the conflict with demonstrators to stir up the public about the
deep threat to the social order posed by “anarchists” from within and
Muslims from without. They were
helped in that mission by the media, and also by the organizers’ own decision
to refuse to talk with mainstream media in advance of the convention.
A press release sent out on September 3, after a weekend of raids and
several days of mass arrests, was headlined, “RNC Welcoming Committee to
Unmask, Answer Questions.”
“The St Paul Police
Department, the City of St Paul, and particularly Bob Fletcher with the Ramsey
County Sheriff’s Department have labeled us a “criminal enterprise”,
painting a picture of us and other anti-RNC organizers as faceless terrorists.
On Thursday, we will show the true faces and stories of the RNC Welcoming
Committee.” the release stated.
The press conference was
too little, too late. The only New
York Times story about the protests, which ran on Tuesday, contained one
line about the issues: “Many of them [were] demonstrating against the war in
Iraq.”
The Denver protests
received even less attention from mainstream news. National media didn’t cover them at all.
Local media covered them perfunctorily, according to a friend who was
there, but mainly focused on the “security” angle.
The liberal media presumably didn’t want to show any dissent from the
left, since the Democrats are the party of Change We Can Believe In, while the
right-wing media didn’t want anything to challenge the myth that Obama is a
big leftist-practically-a-communist.
People who were in Denver
reported that the antiwar march on the first day had a permit for 25,000 people,
but drew only about 5,000. The
immigrant rights march was even smaller, though it drew the most people of
color. Most of the people
participating seemed to be from out of town.
The most confrontational actions were partial to rhetoric like “Whose
Streets? Our Streets!” which was probably kind of alienating to people who
actually live there, and going by video as well as reports online, were short on
banners or signs that might actually let people know what they were protesting
about.
It looked like there might
be a heavy queer presence at the protests.
The DNC Disruption 08 website reported that, “The weekend of April
4th-6th, radical transfolk, queers, anarcha-feminists, from all over the country
converged in Chicago for the Bash Back! anti-DNC/RNC convergence.…The
convergence succeeded in creating a safe space for queer, trans, gendervariant
and womyn anarchists to meet and articulate our plans to crash the
conventions.” As late as July 24,
Bash Back Colorado invited people to “Liberation Not State Sanction! Protest
the Stonewall Democrats!” “This
friday, the forces of assimilationist gay capitalism are throwing themselves a
little party. The Stonewall Democrats’ meet-n-greet is bound to be a blast for
mainstreamers, assimilationists, corporate sponsors and all the affluent
politicos who can afford the ticket price.”
On the streets in Denver,
however, people reported seeing nothing but a handful of rainbow flags.
If there were queer actions in St. Paul, they were ignored even by the
alternative media, though that would hardly be a first.
The Stonewall Dems held
their own national convention in tandem with the DNC. They claimed that “Of 4,489 delegates at the DNC, 270 are
openly gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender,” which is well short of the
magic 10%, but also that “We have 20 GLBT people serving on the Platform
Committee of 186 Democrats.”
A study by the Joint
Center for Economic and Political Studies of both conventions found that:
“The 36 black delegates to the 2008 Republican National Convention in
Minneapolis/St. Paul is the lowest total in 40 years for a Republican National
Convention. These delegates represent 1.5 percent of the total number of
delegates, substantially below the record setting 6.7 percent in 2004.”
The only African American RNC speaker, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Mike
Steele, was the one who led the chant, “Drill, baby, drill,” promoting the
search for fossil fuels in the Arctic.
At the DNC this year, according to the Joint Center study,
Black delegates made up 24.3 percent of the delegate total, up from 20.1 percent
in 2000 and 2004. Of the Black
delegates this year, 485 were men and 594 men.
What the two conventions
had most in common was the prominence of corporate sponsorship.
From the Pepsi Center to the Invesco Field to the Xcel Center to the
Starbucks Tent, corporate goodies were flowing.
A friend from KPFA attended the Media Welcoming party at a downtown
Denver amusement park, where unlimited food, drink and rides were provided free
to 15,000 members of the Fourth Estate, courtesy of the Denver Post, The Rocky
Mountain News, Molson Coors and Vail Resorts.
Since corporate sponsors probably won’t be coming forward
to help with the enormous legal expenses of our arrested comrades, those who can
should donate to the legal defense fund: www.nornc.org/.
By Chaya and Deni with
waggles from Sparky
MOVIE REVIEWS
Mamma Mia (reviewed by
Deni): Meryl Streep is always great
and gave a delightful performance in this movie musical. There was one cute
scene as the townswomen followed her through the streets singing, and the Greek
Isles were beautiful, but I found the movie annoying to the point of sitting
there working on an escape plan. I must say I completely missed ABBA at its
time, and that was seemingly a good thing. And couldn’t the producers have
dubbed someone to sing for Pierce Brosnan so he didn’t have to do it so
awfully and with such a pained look as he tried? Julie Walters, whom I’ve
loved since “Educating Rita” had a part that grew more annoying as the movie
went on. There was also a very racist theme, in which a young Black man was
fawning at Christine Baranski’s feet. Had I left early though, I would have
missed the little gay scene at the end between one of Meryl’s old flames and a
local. But now that you know about it, you don’t have to stay till the end
yourself.
The Dark Knight
(reviewed by Chaya and Deni): We
thoroughly disliked this boring, overblown, endless mess. Even the Heath Ledger
character - though well-acted - was annoying. As Jurgen Fauth (from
worldfilm.about.com) said: “Plodding, puffed-up kitsch mistaking itself for
profound psycho noir that the source material won’t support.”
Chris and Don: A Love
Story (reviewed by Deni and Claire):
This movie about the relationship between writer Christopher Isherwood
and his much younger partner Don Bachardy was told through interviews with the
somewhat shallow Don. Given the rave reviews, we certainly expected more. The
film was a disappointment, overlong yet underdeveloped in areas that would have
given it more depth. For example, Don told about Hollywood parties where they
saw married men they’d slept with partying with their wives. A follow-up
question eliciting Chris and Don’s feelings about this would’ve made the
story far more interesting. The animal animations (Chris thought pets diverted
attention in a relationship so Chris and Don took on animal personas with each
other instead) went from cute to cutesy, and Sparky thought them a poor
substitute for real pets. There was some remarkable footage of days past, but at
the end, we kind of shrugged.
Wall-E (reviewed by
Chaya and Deni):
The beginning of the movie was cute and clever, when we first saw Wall-E
in his day-to-day lonely life collecting trash and things on the planet of the
future. Then came EVA – oh, we should have known trouble was ahead when the
oval-shaped EVA turned out to be female and with that name. Wall-E is all
alone (except for his cockroach friend) because the earth became polluted and
uninhabitable, and all the people left on a spaceship, where they lived for
hundreds of years. Due to technologically enabled inactivity on the spaceship,
everyone got fat and unable to move. They were mocked in a stereotypical and
offensive way – you know, fat, stupid and lazy. Commenting on the scapegoating
of fat people in the movie, an interesting review on slate.com entitled Fat-E
said “Wall-E tells us that if we don’t change the way we live,
we’ll all get really fat and destroy the world” and then proceeds to debunk
many anti-fat myths and misinformation. The blog responses to this review were
fascinating. Fat oppression certainly isn’t new in movies, and cartoons have
always loved to ridicule fat people. The rest of the movie was a nauseating,
hetero love story. Deni says just having to review this movie brings up how much
she disliked it (boring, scientifically erroneous, annoying) and was enraged by
its anti-fat bias. Yuck.
Frozen River (reviewed
by Chaya and Deni):
Hey, a movie we actually liked! Director Courtney Hunt’s beautifully
shot first film stars Melissa Leo (from that great TV series Homicide: Life on
the Streets) and Misty Upham. It tells the story of Ray, a white women living
near the NY-Canadian border, whose gambler husband took her savings and left her
supporting 2 kids with a lousy part-time job. Ray meets Lila, a Mohawk Indian
living an equally difficult life on the fringes of the reservation. Lila draws
Ray into her human smuggling business driving people across the border via the
frozen St. Lawrence River, and their complicated relationship evolves. The
characters are fairly well developed, the script was good, and the acting was
excellent. We found the ending a bit pat but that’s a small price to pay for
an excellent, thought-provoking indie movie that deals with race, class,
immigration and gender issues. It was great to see a good movie about women. See
it.
The Edge of Heaven
(guest review by Kate)
Beautiful (which is in this case not a code word for boring) and ironic movie
about Turkish immigrants in Germany and German ex-pats in Turkey. Has an
unexpected and well-drawn lesbian subplot, and both the women are gorgeous -
need I say more? The revolutionary politics get a little bit of short
shrift, but at least they’re there. Definitely see it!
Vicky Christina
Barcelona (reviewed by Chaya and Deni):
We had mixed reactions from entertaining and interesting to typically
annoying Woody Allen stuff. Excellent acting — Penelope Cruz was great as
always. We haven’t seen many of his movies in about 15 years. Chaya still
can’t get past that he married his step-daughter. Deni, a more evolved person,
finally forgave him last year (much to Woody’s relief). Sparky doesn’t know
who the hell he is and he never has dogs in his movies, anyway.
Trouble the Water
(reviewed by Deni):
This 2008 Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary is riveting, and
profoundly moving. Through the story of a group of people who couldn’t leave
New Orleans when Katrina hit, the devastation of the hurricane is revealed as
the film explores the interplay of race and class on the events and their impact
on the hurricane’s survivors. Kimberly Rivers Roberts, a New Orleans resident
in the Lower Ninth Ward and an aspiring rap artist, had just gotten an old video
camera before the hurricane arrived, and filmed herself, her husband, and some
of their neighbors and family who stayed through it, showing love, community,
and heroism in their fight for survival. Some of her footage is interspersed
with news reports and footage from the movie’s producers Carl Deal and Tia
Lessin, creating a magnificently shot and edited, compelling and enraging story.
Check out the website troublethewaterfilm.com but more important, go see this
film. The filmmakers don’t have big bucks for advertising so word of mouth is
critical. Support it and don’t miss it.
Battle in Seattle
pre-review; release date September 19:
Directorial debut by Irish actor Stuart Townsend about the protests in
Seattle against the World Trade Organization in 1999, you can see the preview
yourself at battleinseattlemovie.com. While the plot may be a bit Hollywoodish
with some attempts to show “evenhandedness” to all sides (except for the WTO,
which is apparently trounced), its sympathies look to be decidedly on the left.
It seems like a good thing to bring this major leftist political event to the
big screen and get people seeing and talking about the issues once again.
Tropic Thunder
non-review: For so many reasons, we didn’t see Tropic Thunder and
didn’t want to, but we were interested in the controversy created by Robert
Downey Jr. playing a Black man. A sample of blogs revealed some support among
African Americans for appreciation of this as satire, but others wrote on
racialicious.com that “a Hollywood movie “lampooning” Hollywood, and
“satirizing” modern-day blackface with, well, blackface… All I can do is
roll my eyes, It’s a Hollywood movie, nuff said. If Hollywood was serious
about racial equality, they’d fund more black filmmakers,” and that “I
always find it funny when whites are in the position to do more than satirize an
injustice, they tend to go for the self-congratulatory option of satire…The
more powerful statement would be for Ben Stiller – one of the most bankable
stars in Hollywood – to simply green-light flicks with more diverse casts and
storylines.” And the always insightful jasmynecannick.com wrote:
“But before you buy that ticket to go and see Tropic Thunder and
further contribute to the destruction of the global Black image and careers of
Black actors, I want you to… first, check the line-up of movies at the theater
you’re at and count how many star Black actors, feature Black actors, or are
directed by Black filmmakers.”
BITS AND PIECES
Does Life Imitate Art?:
Ok, you may have seen it on msnbc or
read blogs about it online, but we know we were the FIRST to note the
similarities between Obama’s acceptance speech and Michael Douglas’ final
speech in Aaron Sorkin’s 1995 “The American President.” We have watched
that movie ummm, “several” times (if it weren’t for Warren Beatty, Deni
would’ve long ago lost Chaya to Annette Bening) and kept looking at each other
in amazement as Obama spoke. For a fun look at the similarities, go to http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/08/29/do-barack-obamas-speechwriters-watch-too-much-aaron-sorkin/
Once we thought of Sorkin,
West Wing came to mind as we pondered who exactly was responsible for vetting vp
nominee Palin: was it Josh, Toby, or Sam? (Fine,
we’re prepared to admit we may be having some media boundary issues…)
Momma Mia Redux:
The teen birth rate is up for the first time in 15 years. Wondering what
responsibility the dastardly Juno movie has for that? For more information on
abstinence-only programs, call 1-800-Ask-Sarah and ask for Bristol!
To Hell With Helms:
Honorary mention to L.F. Eason III of the Raleigh, North Carolina State
Dept. of Agriculture, who gave up the only job he’d ever had rather than lower
a flag to honor former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms. But shouldn’t he just have been
fired instead? Call 1-800-Ask-Sarah to check on appropriate labor policies!
Separation of…?:
Sarah wants creationism taught in public schools but how does her father, a
former public school science teacher, feel about that? Curious? Call
1-800-Ask-Sarah!
The Revolution Will Not
Be Televised, and the Listings Will Not Be Advertised: Readers
in SF may have noticed that you can no longer find any Landmark Theatre
showtimes in the SF Chronicle’s movie listings, you have to use the annoying
and badly designed Landmark website. Apparently, Landmark has decided to stop
paying for newspaper listings since the Chron upped its charges. Yeah, yeah, the
Chron should be a people’s paper and offer this service for free,
but come on, Landmark is not exactly Newsreel, i.e. a struggling alternative
film distribution company. As “the nation’s largest theatre chain dedicated
to exhibiting and marketing independent film,” it has 58 theatres in 23
markets throughout the country and increased its screen count by 19% in 2007.
And yet they can’t afford to list with the Chron? Puh-leeze. Register your
complaint with Landmark’s CEO Ted Mundorff (call toll free 1-888-724-6362) or
email CustomerService@LandmarkTheatres.com
Re … Ducks: Mean
people who want to hunt migratory waterfowl must pay a $15 annual fee by
purchasing a “duck stamp” from the federal government. But thanks to a
typographical error that will not be corrected this year, callers to the federal
government’s toll-free number (printed on 3.5 million cards) are reaching a
phone-sex line (oops! That’s 1-800-STAMP24 not TRAMP24). Was the Duck
Liberation Army responsible? The government says it uses nearly all the revenue
to purchase waterfowl habitat for the National Wildlife Refuge System. So
let’s see if we understand this – the government purchases waterfowl habitat
every year so that duck hunters can go there and shoot ducks? It’s so
confusing! For clarification on shooting endangered species from helicopters and
other hunting issues, call 1-800-Ask-Sarah!
WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF SPARKY SPARKY SPARKY
WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF
by Inez Sunwoo
Summer
2008- Seoul, Korea - The climate was sweltering not just because of the arrival
of annual monsoons but also because the people were restless. Nightly, when the
air became more comfortable by the light of the moon, crowds gathered all around
the city with candles lit to demonstrate against the President’s authority.
These vigils were called candlelight demonstrations, and the people’s numbers
were ranging from thousands to tens of thousands to even half a million. Their
reasons for gathering were reportedly to protest U.S. imported beef that was
rumored to be at high risk of mad cow contamination. That is how the mainstream
media would have liked to report the situation, to reduce it to a scandalous
case of mass hysteria perhaps. To a curious onlooker whose attention was peaked,
this type of reporting would be more likely to dismiss the issue rather than to
see and be inspired by the real moment transpiring, which was that actually, a
social movement had unfolded and people, many of which had never participated in
social protest, were taking action. Having heard of the way that people were
effectively disrupting the authoritarian and violent politicians in power, and
were organizing their resources and tactics very successfully, I went to the
demonstrations to see for myself what was happening. After all, how could
concerns over mad cow disease quickly evolve into one of the largest and most
creative examples of social movement building in contemporary times? Who, if
anyone, was leading these demonstrations? And most importantly, where were the
queers?
It is hard to be in Korea
without noting how quickly things change socially, economically, and
technologically. The other glaringly obvious feature of Korean life is U.S.
military occupation, and a stalemated civil conflict between the North and the
South. Because of this “enemy within” approach to social control, there is
both an intense nationalistic, pro western, pro Christian, pro military
red-baiting bent, and an intense pro unification, anti-occupation pro socialist,
and communist sympathizer bent. Therefore everything I investigated was
contextualized between these two poles.
Not everything of course
was one or the other. For example, early on during the vigils, after the
president had dispatched the riot police to use force to stop the vigils, the
national guard dispatched themselves to the demonstrations to protect the people
and the right to demonsrate. Then when gender issues began to play out, with
many women at the demonstrations taking issue with the way the guardsmen used
them as objects to protect and prevented them from fighting back directly
against the police, the women were regarded as unappreciative of the patriotic
heroism of the guardsmen. This made me ask the feminists around me how gender
and sexuality were discussed during the protests. One friend reminded me of the
growing rate of conscientious objectors who were protesting the compulsory
military service because they were anti-war by faith, or because they were
anti-imperial by politcs. The conscientious objectors who were also femme,
particularly gay boys in service, were usually punished with 2 years of prison
time for going awol, as opposed to the very butch straight Christian counterpart
who would find sanctuary from the military and have the support of a sympathetic
public. These gay boys were usually on their own, and didn’t have a strong
base of family and community to advocate alongside them.
It wasn’t until the
third demonstration I attended that I saw a rainbow flag. As I waded through the
crowd to find some queer allies, I was dismayed to only see a contingent of two.
They were very nice university aged women. When I asked where the rest of the
lgbtqqi folks were, and explained what the btqqi identities I referred to were,
they told me that they brought the flag out to hopefully attract others. Meeting
them made me realize that there is a certain way in which the queer community is
configured in Seoul. These two lesbians were from a liberal college town-ish
area of Seoul that was very artsy and kitsch and upper middle class. In this
area, called HongDae, there are easily 5 very posh lesbian clubs that pack in a
small handful of people every night. Why there are five clubs in a 3 block
radius is beyond me, or how they survive financially with such a small
clientele.
Beyond this college aged
lesbian scene, there is a queer scene well hidden and disenfranchised near the
military base, and an even less visible youth queer culture that is totally
disenfranchised. For youth, the educational system is their primary
institutionalized existence. The average time in school and after school at a
tutor is 10-12 hours a day. Many of the youth represented in the demonstrations
were protesting this existence, and in fact, the original spark that ignited the
protests began with jr high school girls who were sick of school, and were
concerned with the idea that the school would be serving this potentially
contaminated beef. So they rioted. During the vigils, youth could be seen with
demands that they be given a vote, especially in the school superintendent
elections that would deeply impact their education and existence.
There were not many queer
youth that I met though. Later I met with a lesbian organization, WOM, who
relayed to me the ways in which queer youth were struggling with being out and
visible in public. As young people explore their emergent sexuality, those who
want to come out have fear of reprisal from not only their homophobic peers, but
also a punitive administration that takes specific measures to first call in
their families to pressure ‘reform’ or else expel them for expressing their
homosexuality. Many youth turn to suicide or runaway. Those who runaway may try
to find a sugarmomma or daddy in HongDae or near the military base in Itaewon.
If they can’t, some take jobs as delivery boys (this is mainly for boys or
those who can pass as boys), or they take room and board in a dormitory in
exchange for doing sexual favors for the managers of the dormitory, and their
managers clients. Aka, they are pimped. So one could imagine why there would be
fewer visible young queers who have time or presence to be out at the
demonstrations amongst the other majority youth who are fighting for education
policy.
The queers in near the
military base, in Itaewon, often also have to move into a sex work service
economy in order to find a place and generate resources. Itaewon, like any
military town, has a deeply embedded sex trade industry that is partly brokered
through the military agency itself, to service the soldiers. In this
environment, the predominant issues that are being organized around are not only
an end to unequal relations of power between occupier and occupied like unfair
bi-lateral trade agreements, but also sex workers are fighting for more rights
as sex workers, access to clean medical treatment and harm reduction, migrant
rights, as many are also trafficked and forced to work without legal status, and
freedom from harm from sexist, homophobic and transphobic attacks. They too are
less present at the demos at large, even though they are in support of the
issues and the resistance. It is more though that their resistance is daily. The
climate in Seoul is probably still quite hot. I still hope to further the
investigation into queer vibrancy within social movements, but of course, this
query is preceded by the need to address the everday social and economic needs
surrounding queer life.
August 16 was the two year
anniversary of the incident in which seven Black lesbians from Newark NJ were
arrested for defending themselves against an attack by Dwayne Buckle in the New
York’s West Village. Seven lesbians were originally charged, three pled out
rather than face trial, and four, Patreese Johnson, Renata Hill, Terrain
Dandridge and Venice Brown were
tried and convicted in June 2007.
Since that time, several
small groups around the country have been organizing around the case, including
in the Bay Area. In June, we planned a visit to the Bay Area for Kimma Walker,
Terrain’s mother, that was centered around her speaking at the Dyke March.
Fortunately, a week before she was scheduled to come out here, Terrain won her
appeal – her convictions were not only overturned, but the charges were
completely dismissed. So the travel plans were changed, and Terrain and Kimma
were welcomed by an overflow crowd at the Women’s Building, that included a
speech by Angela Davis, and a performance by Ojala. They also spoke together at
the Dyke March and a couple of other venues. We raised over $2000 which has been
used to pay some of the travel expenses, as well as to provide commissary money
and other support.
Renata’s appeal was
heard at the same time as Terrain’s, and Renata’s conviction on the gang
assault charge was also overturned. Since she had served all her time on the
misdemeanor assault charge, Renata was therefore eligible for bail, which was
initially set at the unreachable level of $75,000. Right after Renata was
transferred to Riker’s Island to await a new trial, her mother, Molly Brown,
died, and Renata was unable to attend her memorial. Finally, at the end of
August, Renata’s bail was lowered to $5000, and through the efforts of people
all around the country, she was finally released on August 29. Venice has been
transferred to a smaller prison in Manhattan, and also may be eligible for
release on $5000 bond. At this time, we are not aware of any bail being set for
Patreese, who got the longest sentence, 11 years. It is expected that Venice and
Patreese’s appeals will be heard in November.
The other three lesbians
who pled out are having a difficult time re-establishing their lives due to the
felony conviction and parole conditions.
The Bay Solidarity
Committee is continuing to raise money through benefits and the sale of t-shirts
to provide support to the seven lesbians impacted by this case. We will have a
workshop at 4 p.m. on Saturday September 26 at Critical Resistance 10, and are
planning a local organizing meeting/film showing to plan actions that will raise
the underlying issues in the case, including the racist/heterosexist depictions
of the NJ4 (or seven), the right of self-defense, and the criminalization of
young queers of color, etc. We are working with individuals and groups in
Champaign Illinois (who set up a national organizing website) New York and New
Jersey. Donations (not tax deductible) can be sent to:
Bay
SolidarityP.O. Box 11281Oakland, CA 94611
For updates on the case, mailing addresses for Venice and
Patreese, and notices of meetings and forums, go to: http://freenj4.wordpress.com/. To get e-mail notices,
join the baynj4solidarity yahoo group.
by Kate
Most UV readers will have
heard that two boats laden with medical supplies, hearing aids and solidarity
activists landed in Gaza a few weeks ago. The
sea voyage from Cyprus to Gaza was the product of over two years of organizing
and fundraising which began with an email discussion among activists who had
been deported or denied entry by the israeli government who were looking for a
way to return to Palestine. The
mission had been postponed several times due to lack of funds; in the end they
raised over $250,000, not including the airfares and expenses of the individuals
participating, and they are $300,000 in debt.
Though only 46 activists actually sailed to Gaza, hundreds helped to send
the boats, named Free Gaza and Liberty. Our
friend Lynn Levey was part of the advance team in Cyprus, but had to return home
before the boats set sail.
The arrival was greeted by
as many as 50,000 Palestinians, who lined the roads leading to the port, sailed
out on fishing boats to meet them, and even jumped in the water to swim beside
them to shore. The story received
only perfunctory coverage by the major u.s. media, but got much more play in
Europe. One of those aboard was
British journalist Lauren Booth, whose brother-in-law is former prime minister
Tony Blair, now special envoy to Palestine and israel.
The activists had always
been very public about their intentions, and the israeli government for two
years seemed most inclined to ignore them.
At one point, a spokesperson for the israeli military said anyone who
wanted to go to “Hamastan” was welcome to do so. Suddenly, in the weeks before the voyage, the Israeli
government launched into attack mode, making grandiose threats against the Free
Gaza Movement vessels. They
declared that they considered the FGM pirates; they said they had “credible
reason to believe” that they were carrying both weapons and terrorists; they
threatened to fire on the boats or arrest everyone and take them to israel for
interrogation. Lauren Booth’s
family received anonymous phone calls saying that the boats were going to be
blown up. The activists requested
the Cypriot police to search the boats before they sailed, to verify that there
were no weapons or other contraband aboard, and also invited journalists to come
on board. Due largely to the media
frenzy around the voyage in Europe, the israeli government in the end decided
not to try to prevent them from landing in Gaza.
Most
of the activists stayed a few days and sailed back to Cyprus.
About ten, including Lauren Booth, remained in Gaza accompanying fishing
boats and reporting on the situation there.
Bay Area lesbians Darlene and Donna Wallach are among those who stayed.
A few days ago, they reported that israeli ships were firing at the
fishing boats they were on. The
israeli navy routinely fires at Gazan fisherpeople, preventing them from getting
out far enough to find fish.
Seven Palestinians also
sailed to Cyprus on the Free Gaza and Liberty.
Among them were a ten-year-old boy, who lost his leg in an Israeli attack
three years ago, and his father. Saed
Mosleh and his father, Khaled, had visas to go to Cyprus so Saed could be fitted
for an artificial leg.
Lauren Booth attempted to
go through the Erez crossing into israel and was denied entry; she then
attempted to go to Egypt via Rafah and was also denied.
In a statement, she thanked the israeli government for giving her the
opportunity to share the Palestinian experience.
Jeff Halper of the Israeli
Committee Against House Demolitions, the only israeli Jew on the voyage, was
arrested when he crossed from Gaza to the israeli border town of Sderot.
Jeff Halper was questioned and released, but remains charged with
violating the law forbidding israeli citizens to enter Gaza and all Palestinian
cities without special permission.
The israelis’ decision
to let the boats land blunted the impact of the FGM, which had hoped a
confrontation with the israeli navy would help create a larger international
outcry over the siege of Gaza. Gaza
has been basically sealed to the outside world for most of the last eight years,
and especially since the Hamas takeover two years ago.
Though israel claims Gaza is unoccupied, since the evacuation of the
settlements in 2005, it retains control over all the borders.
The Rafah crossing to Egypt remains closed much of the time, and when
it’s open, very few non-Palestinians are given permission to enter. At least 200 Palestinians have died because of shortages of
medical supplies and inability to get to hospitals in Egypt.
It remains to be seen what
the impact of the FGM voyage will be. They
are planning to sail to Gaza again on September 22 to pick up the activists who
remained and to demonstrate “that the sea lanes between Gaza and the rest of
the world have been permanently opened.” They plan to deliver mail; if you
want to send any, see their website www.freegaza.org.
The israeli authorities have said that just because they let them land
the first time does not mean that future voyages will not be stopped.
The siege of Gaza remains in effect, but the FGM did succeed in focusing
international attention on it for a short while, and set a great precedent. This represented the first time in 40 years that anyone has
freely entered or left Gaza.
Richard Falk, UN Special
Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, wrote:
“The landing of two
wooden boats carrying 46 human rights activists in Gaza is an important symbolic
victory. This non-violent initiative of the Free Gaza Movement focused attention
around the world on the stark reality that the 1.5 million residents of Gaza
have endured a punitive siege for more than a year. This siege is a form of
collective punishment that constitutes a massive violation of Article 33 of the
Fourth Geneva Convention. The siege, the coastal blockade, and overflights by
Israeli aircraft all bear witness to the fact that despite Israel’s claimed
‘disengagement’ in 2005, these realities on the ground establish that Gaza
remains under Israeli occupation, and as a result Israel remains legally
responsible for protecting the human rights of its civilian population. By
severely restricting the entry of food, fuel, and medicine the economic and
social rights of the people of Gaza have been systematically violated. There is
widespread deafness among the people of Gaza that is blamed on the frequent
sonic booms produced by over-flying Israeli military aircraft. For this reason
the peace boats brought 200 hearing aids to Gaza.”
The photos of the landing
and comments from Palestinians who witnessed it are deeply moving.
Check them out at http://palestinian.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=1970466%3ATopic%3A23710.
Quicker than a New York minute, with only a day’s
notice, 300 people converged on city hall in San Francisco to protest a press
conference planned by the Minutemen, the anti-immigrant vigilante force.
The steps of city hall, site of the press conference,
were taken over by the protestors. The dozen minutemen were forced inside. Given
the increased number and intensity of ICE attacks on immigrants across the
country, this demonstration was a reminder that San Francisco’s protections of
immigrants needs to be supported and reinforced.
By Tory
Ed’s Note:
We know that many of our UV readers are or have been members and
supporters of SEIU and CNA. This article represents one perspective, but we would be very
interested in hearing your perspectives on the dispute between these two
important unions. Please feel free
to email us at lagai_qi@yahoo.com or write to LAGAI, 3543 18th
St. #26, San Francisco, CA 94110 (email preferred if possible).
Let us know if it is okay to print all or part of your comments.
The attack on the Labor
Notes Conference April 2008 ( a progressive labor forum independent of any
specific union) by some 200 SEIU ( Service Employees International Union)
members and staff, brought a vitriolic focus on a complex set of issues facing
OUR health care unions. Ostensibly this disruption, in which people were injured
and hospitalized, was a protest personally aimed at Rose Ann Demoro, Director of
the California Nurse’s Association (CAN), because of a dispute over organizing
nurses in Ohio. SEIU and CNA are at war ‑ a dismal state of affairs which
only serves to undermine health care workers.
As in all labor stories in
this amerikkka, this one has many convoluted parts. It is a story which combines
the restructuring of SEIU; the formation of a new labor coalition Change-to-Win;
the disaffection of local SEIU leader Sal Roselli from the international led by
andy stern; the politics of health care reform; and the age old competition of
CNA and SEIU
I am a nurse committed to
union representation of nurses and fighting management together with all
workers. From 1996-2001, I was active in SEIU Local 616, which represented RNs
working for the Alameda County Medical Center. I saw the beginning of the
restructuring of SEIU. At the SEIU 2000 convention the New Strength Unity plan
was instituted by andy stern. This plan took SEIU down the road towards its
current transformation, by establishing unity councils that supplanted local
autonomy in order to coordinate bargaining and organizing, and gave the
President (andy) new power to intervene in local affairs. At the time, as a
union member I remember feeling the top-down hierarchy from the international
union looming. The 2004 convention saw the expansion of the President’s
powers. The union bylaws were changed to allow the international president to
appoint bargaining committees for local unions and allowed elected local
officers to be automatically removed when trustees are appointed by the
International union.
From
then on a series of mergers of local unions into larger unions with like workers
were formed. My union Local 616, a small, intimate union, became part of a big
monolith union of all public employees in California called SEIU 1021. Trusted
staff of the old local had to take new jobs and toe the line or lose their jobs.
Gone was a small feisty local involved with Alameda County politics, with access
for workers they represented. Gone was the political will and interest to impact
the sordid politics of The Alameda Medical Center. Who would now watch the
maniacal back door antics of the evil dave kears as he undermines our county
hospital? There are no longer locals committed to community struggles. Locals
who didn’t go along with the mergers were put into receivership. The newly
merged large unions had officers appointed by andy stern. The reason given to
support this idea of merging small locals into larger industry based unions was
to empower unions in a global economy to fight on an industry-wide basis.
In addition to
establishing large merged unions, the 2008 convention approved the installation
of call centers for members to access their unions, ending the time-honored
approach of having assigned shop stewards.
Workers “are not
interested in coming to union halls,” says Stern, suggesting that call centers
and text messaging — instead of shop stewards — are part of the new
communications paradigm for unions. (Crain’s Insider, 5/2/2006)
But it seems that what may
have happened with this new regional structuring with much less rank and file
democracy, and with bargaining teams picked and decisions made by the top-down
international is a new kind of corporate unionism, unfortunately all too
familiar.
In 2005 SEIU and a number
of other unions including Teamsters UNITE/HERE and UFCW, left the AFL-CIO to
form rival labor federation Change-To-Win. The stated purpose was to change the
climate of union activism and to form massive union drives and revive the
failing labor movement in this country. This emphasis on organizing, while
essential, has not always been principled and has contributed to the growth of
labor- management partnerships .
To add to the general
confusion and difficulty of understanding OUR health care unions, Sal Roselli,
the elected long time president of United Healthcare West UHW (formerly Local
250), has taken a stand against the international and resigned from UHW’s
executive board, ostensibly because of the decrease in union democracy.
“Corporate unionism is the term we use to describe what stern is doing,”
Roselli said in the Washington Post (May 27, 2008). Many people feel that Roselli began opposing the
international because the merger did not go the way he wanted. At issue is the
proposed placement of 65,000 long-term care workers formerly in Local 250 (now
part of UHW), into large merged United Long-Term Healthcare Workers, which was
headed by Tyrone Freeman until the recent financial scandal which has taken SEIU
by storm (more on this later)
Workers within SEIU have
been organizing against the international’s increased push for top-down
power-hungry unionism by starting SEIU Member Activists for Reform Today (S.M.A.R.T.),
a pro-democracy rank-and-file group. S.M.A.R.T. is supporting UHW and its fight
against the international to transfer the 65,000 long-term care health workers
out of the union. Sal Roselli is involved with S.M.A.R.T. and part of the
funding comes from him (unsubstantiated insider union gossip). This group went
to the 2008 convention and called for union democracy reforms. They are opposing
andy stern’s attempt to place UHW into receivership.
It is hard for those of us
who have known of Sal Roselli these many years, to make the leap to this new
pro-union democracy persona, as he was one of the main orchestrators of the
infamous kaiser labor-management partnerships. In 2002, when UHW was still local
250, Sal Roselli was instrumental in forming a labor-management partnership in
which SEIU agreed to restrict nursing home workers from reporting patient abuses
in nursing homes. Now he is in the lead denouncing corporate unionism. Even more
confusing with this latest twist, Sal is now allied with Rose Ann Demoro, his
life-long enemy. Both were slated to speak at the Labor Notes Conference.
What happened in Lorain,
Ohio, leading up to the disruption of the Labor Notes conference, embodies just
about all the worst aspects of this lethal anti-worker competition between SEIU
and CNA. SEIU began organizing nurses at the local catholic hospital in 2004.
This hospital was part of a big catholic chain called catholic healthcare
partners (chp) and not surprisingly pulled out every nasty anti-union tactic
they could to prevent unionization of health care workers in all their Ohio
hospitals. SEIU launched a three-year anti-corporate political union organizing
campaign against chp. SEIU had committees in each of the 21 hospitals.
After three years of hard community-based organizing SEIU had won enough
local clout and entered into what can only be described as a sweetheart deal
with chp. An election was set for March at nine of the hospitals with the
possibility of unionizing 8,300 health care workers. Because of the political
pressure mounted by SEIU, chp signed a historic agreement to hold elections free
from coercion. The employees received a letter jointly written by SEIU and chp,
announcing the election and committing both sides to remain silent and neutral
during the time leading up to the election. This, of course, would have laid the
ground for future labor-management partnerships of which SEIU in particular and
labor in general is so fond. At this juncture, CNA arrived in Ohio and began an
anti-SEIU campaign, accusing them of a sweetheart deal. This killed the union
drive and all the workers lost out. What ensued was a brutal war, complete with
each union spending enormous money on smear leaflets sent to each others
constituency. Because I am an RN and once was in SEIU, for months I received
weekly hate diatribes from both unions. It was an upsetting reflection of how
much rank-and-file health care workers simply do not count.
Why was CNA so bent on
disrupting this election in Ohio? you might ask.
The crux of the dispute is
the labor-management partnerships. In 1997 kaiser and SEIU formed a
labor-management partnership which essentially said that SEIU could organize
health care workers unimpeded in exchange for pushing kaiser medical insurance
to their members. This partnership has impacted kaiser health care workers in a
variety of ways. It is safe to say that workers have made financial gains, but
often the union has sided with the kaiser management on a issues of health and
safety and not supported stewards’ grievances. Most importantly for RNs. SEIU
has not supported their organizing because of their conflicted alliance. Several
years ago, when RNs were taking on kasier over safe staffing issues, SEIU
reached an agreement with kaiser which undermined CNA’s stand, by allowing
less skilled workers (LVNs and Nurses’ Aides) to replace RNs at the bedside,
which in turn led to layoffs of nurses. Then to add fuel to the fire, SEIU did
not support a CNA picket line during their strike. SEIU has repeatedly pushed
the strategy of making labor-management partnerships, with sutter, catholic
healthcare west and tenet. CNA has always been critical of this approach.
Registered Nurses have
become the new battle ground of the labor movement. Everybody wants to organize
them. In large part this has to do with an unending nursing shortage resulting
in an increase in salaries bringing big union dues to whoever gets them.
Moreover, RNs have become essential to the running of hospitals, and so have
more power during labor disputes than other health care workers. CNA has
recently expanded to be a national RN organizing union called the National
Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC).
RNs have a difficult role
in hospital hierarchies. On one hand they are at the bottom of the so-called
professional rung, at the beck and call of every doctor. Registered nurses have
traditionally come from working class backgrounds. On the other hand, they are
the charge nurses supervising allied health care workers. RNs then have divided
loyalties, often not thinking or identifying themselves as the workers they are
and also receiving much more privilege in the hierarchy. In addition, as highly
trained licensed bedside health care workers they carry an enormous
responsibility for patient welfare.
California Nurse’s
Association as a true labor organization was born out of a battle in the
1990’s with the then primarily professional organization American Nurses
Association. Since that time CNA has grown into an independent, strong,
sometimes militant union for RNs. Importantly they have had and won strikes. The
ability to sustain and win strikes is a crucial aspect of successful worker
organizing. In addition CNA has led the fight for true single payer health care
reform. CNA has also been instrumental in gaining nurse-to-patient ratios in
California, much to the distress of the hospitals and arnold schwarzenegger. CNA
was able to get legislation signed by Gray Davis which was introduced into the
hospitals just as schwarzenegger came into office. arnold declared an emergency
order blocking the legislation’s implementation. CNA responded by an all out
extensive campaign against arnold, dogging him everywhere he went with
delightful iconoclastic pressure. His approval rating dropped 30 points. The RNs
finally won the nurse-to-patient ratio and set the stage for similar discussion
throughout the country. It must be said that SEIU tried to undermine this
nurse-to-patient ratio campaign by lobbying to include LVNs in the ratio, much
to the joy of the hospitals. This of course misunderstands the nature of RN
licensing and training and nurses’ extensive responsibility in hospitals.
What would really make a
difference, change health care profoundly in this country and improve working
conditions for all health care workers, is single payer universal health care.
If real reform happened, profit motive and money as the proverbial bottom line
would not be management’s first concern, and working conditions for health
care workers would vastly improve. Staffing would be adequate; health and safety
would not be resisted by administrations. Only CNA has consistently worked for
single payer, supporting and actively working on Sheila Kuehl’s bill SB840 in
California and John Conyers’ federal bill.
When CNA decided to join
AFL-CIO two years ago, they insisted that AFL-CIO support for single payer be a
prerequisite before they would join.
SEIU, on the other hand,
has only supported universal health care when it suited them. More often they
have taken the side of incremental change supporting employee mandates plans
which only keep the insurance industry alive and kicking. During the
schwarznegger so-called health care reform fiasco, SEIU would not work on single
payer but rather was involved in endless back room deals in Sacramento. SEIU
worked in its own coalition to promote a Massachusetts-style plan, saying that
single payer didn’t have a chance at passing (meanwhile, it has passed both
houses of the legislature twice, only to be vetoed by schwarzenegger). At the
eleventh hour, andy stern came to California and worked behind the scenes with
schwarzenegger on an even more watered-down reform bill. In the end nothing was
passed and the uninsured continue to die for lack of health care. Continuing in
this lethal vein, in May of last year andy stern and wal-mart CEO lee scott
appeared on stage together at a meeting of better health care together, a
coalition of fortune 500 business people initiated by stern to work on the
health care crisis, thus combining the principles of labor-management
partnerships with incremental health care deform!!!
Most recently a corruption
scandal has rocked SEIU. Tyrone Freeman (Sal Roselli’s nemesis and appointee
of andy stern), the president of United Long Term Health Care Workers, was fired
because of allegations of corruption resulting in a federal probe into the
financial mismanagement of union funds. The local paid $178,000 to a video
business operated by his wife; another $96,000 went to his mother-in-law’s day
care business through a union affiliated charity. The local spent $300,000 at
the Four Seasons Resort’s golf tournament.
The list goes on. The amounts spent on family and friends totaled one
million dollars in 2006 and 2007. Workers in this union make about nine dollars
an hour from which they pay union dues. This stealing of the people’s money by
trusted union officials is an outrage and is supported all they way up through
the union hierarchy, with andy stern setting the example.
Tory’s score card
Both CNA and SEIU
1.
Both unions are locked in combat to get RNs by any means necessary. CNA
is now at Alameda County Medical Center in a decertification drive for RNs who
have been represented by SEIU for many years.
SEIU has been trying to raid CNA unions in the LA area and was involved
in decertifying CNA at Scripps memorial hospital in Encanitas
2. Both unions fire staff
who disagree with union politics du jour. I have know people who have been fired
from both unions in succession for sticking up for rank-and file.
Good things about the
CNA:
1. The CNA has been the
strongest and most consistent advocate for single payer and nurse staffing
ratios.
2. They have fought the
NLRB to ensure that all nurses can be represented by unions, including lead
nurses.
3. Aggressive organizing
RNs have a difficult role
in hospital hierarchies. On one hand they are at the bottom of the so-called
professional rung, at the beck and call of every doctor. Registered nurses have
traditionally come from working class backgrounds. On the other hand, they are
the charge nurses supervising allied health care workers. RNs then have divided
loyalties, often not thinking or identifying themselves as the workers they are
and also receiving much more privilege in the hierarchy. In addition, as highly
trained licensed bedside health care workers they carry an enormous
responsibility for patient welfare.
California Nurse’s
Association as a true labor organization was born out of a battle in the
1990’s with the then primarily professional organization American Nurses
Association. Since that time CNA has grown into an independent, strong,
sometimes militant union for RNs. Importantly they have had and won strikes. The
ability to sustain and win strikes is a crucial aspect of successful worker
organizing. In addition CNA has led the fight for true single payer health care
reform. CNA has also been instrumental in gaining nurse-to-patient ratios in
California, much to the distress of the hospitals and arnold schwarzenegger. CNA
was able to get legislation signed by Gray Davis which was introduced into the
hospitals just as schwarzenegger came into office. arnold declared an emergency
order blocking the legislation’s implementation. CNA responded by an all out
extensive campaign against arnold, dogging him everywhere he went with
delightful iconoclastic pressure. His approval rating dropped 30 points. The RNs
finally won the nurse-to-patient ratio and set the stage for similar discussion
throughout the country. It must be said that SEIU tried to undermine this
nurse-to-patient ratio campaign by lobbying to include LVNs in the ratio, much
to the joy of the hospitals. This of course misunderstands the nature of RN
licensing and training and nurses’ extensive responsibility in hospitals.
What would really make a
difference, change health care profoundly in this country and improve working
conditions for all health care workers, is single payer universal health care.
If real reform happened, profit motive and money as the proverbial bottom line
would not be management’s first concern, and working conditions for health
care workers would vastly improve. Staffing would be adequate; health and safety
would not be resisted by administrations. Only CNA has consistently worked for
single payer, supporting and actively working on Sheila Kuehl’s bill SB840 in
California and John Conyers’ federal bill.
When CNA decided to join
AFL-CIO two years ago, they insisted that AFL-CIO support for single payer be a
prerequisite before they would join.
SEIU, on the other hand,
has only supported universal health care when it suited them. More often they
have taken the side of incremental change supporting employee mandates plans
which only keep the insurance industry alive and kicking. During the
schwarznegger so-called health care reform fiasco, SEIU would not work on single
payer but rather was involved in endless back room deals in Sacramento. SEIU
worked in its own coalition to promote a Massachusetts-style plan, saying that
single payer didn’t have a chance at passing (meanwhile, it has passed both
houses of the legislature twice, only to be vetoed by schwarzenegger). At the
eleventh hour, andy stern came to California and worked behind the scenes with
schwarzenegger on an even more watered-down reform bill. In the end nothing was
passed and the uninsured continue to die for lack of health care. Continuing in
this lethal vein, in May of last year andy stern and wal-mart CEO lee scott
appeared on stage together at a meeting of better health care together, a
coalition of fortune 500 business people initiated by stern to work on the
health care crisis, thus combining the principles of labor-management
partnerships with incremental health care deform!!!
Most recently a corruption
scandal has rocked SEIU. Tyrone Freeman (Sal Roselli’s nemesis and appointee
of andy stern), the president of United Long Term Health Care Workers, was fired
because of allegations of corruption resulting in a federal probe into the
financial mismanagement of union funds. The local paid $178,000 to a video
business operated by his wife; another $96,000 went to his mother-in-law’s day
care business through a union affiliated charity. The local spent $300,000 at
the Four Seasons Resort’s golf tournament.
The list goes on. The amounts spent on family and friends totaled one
million dollars in 2006 and 2007. Workers in this union make about nine dollars
an hour from which they pay union dues. This stealing of the people’s money by
trusted union officials is an outrage and is supported all they way up through
the union hierarchy, with andy stern setting the example.
Tory’s score card
Both CNA and SEIU
1.
Both unions are locked in combat to get RNs by any means necessary. CNA
is now at Alameda County Medical Center in a decertification drive for RNs who
have been represented by SEIU for many years.
SEIU has been trying to raid CNA unions in the LA area and was involved
in decertifying CNA at Scripps memorial hospital in Encanitas
2. Both unions fire staff
who disagree with union politics du jour. I have know people who have been fired
from both unions in succession for sticking up for rank-and file.
Good things about the
CNA:
1. The CNA has been the
strongest and most consistent advocate for single payer and nurse staffing
ratios.
2. They have fought the
NLRB to ensure that all nurses can be represented by unions, including lead
nurses.
3. Aggressive organizing
Bad things about the
CNA:
1. The CNA the most
well-paid, highest status, non-physician health care workers, and therefore is
less diverse than the SEIU
2. The CNA has no analysis
about the problems of hierarchy among health care workers.
Good things about the SEIU:
1. Potentially represents
all health care workers both within organizations and across the range of health
care settings
2. Aggressively organizing
3. Membership and staff
are very diverse
4. The use of purple
Bad things about SEIU:
1. Consolidation of
mega-locals increases top-down lack of democracy
2. Corruption
3. Promotes
Labor/Management partnership/deals
The only people who profit
from this dire situation of competing health care unions are hospital chains,
big pharma, and insurance companies. OUR health care unions cannot mount a
united front for single payer universal health care. Patients die and workers
are exploited. Corrupt union officials are serving the interests of an evil
capitalist system who’s only purpose is to make money of the misery of
illness.
Recently I talked to two
different SEIU RNs. Both are active
stewards and both are in Local 1021, but one works for a county visiting nurse
agency and the other at Highland Hospital Because of the merger they now know
each other and work with an area wide group of SEIU activists RNs.
Both are strongly identified as workers who have to fight management for
improved working conditions and patient care. Both feel abandoned by their union
and alone in the enormous amount of steward work they do. My friend at Highland
says “ I don’t like Sal and I don’t like Andy and I don’t want be in CNA.”
These dedicated shop
steward nurses have been left hanging out to dry. We need a revolution BAD, a health care revolution, a health
care worker revolution.
HEALTH
CARE WORKERS UNITE, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS!
HEALTH
CARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT!