We stand together or fall alone - CWA Local 1180

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4 J u l y /Au g u s t ’11 C o m m u n i q u e Wild, Wild Wall Street and the Old West By Dan Cunningham People of the Old West took a real dim view of thievery, fraud, pilfering, chicanery and cheating. Why, Wyatt Earp arrested men just for cheating at cards. And what do you think Doc Holliday did when he caught some dirty polecat double dealing? Well, suffice it to say that dead men tell no tales. Nothing rankled folk more than cheating and stealing. Those cowboys, ranchers and prospectors foolish enough to gamble hardearned money would let loose with lead if they got an inkling that the game weren’t on the level. As reckless, lawless, and violent as things sometimes got back then, most of the early settlers yearned for law, justice, and a peaceful way of life. But too often, the law was too far away and too slow to respond when folks needed protection. Those with the fastest guns, or the most hired gunslingers, usually got their way. Claim jumpers, cattle rustlers, and horse thieves abounded—killing, looting and stealing. It was left to men like the Earp brothers (and company) to keep the peace. History will disclose that the likes of the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday were fatally flawed heroes, but they lived by a code. They drew a line in the sand; and when the likes of the Clanton Gang and the Tombstone desperadoes stepped too far over that line, threatening innocent men, women and children, they evened the score with Colt .45 peacemakers and sawed-off shotguns. Wall Street outlaws So the story goes. We’ve all heard the tales of our bygone western frontier, and seen the Hollywood images of noble American cowboys and maverick lawmen standing against corrupt cattle barons. Even if these frontier tales contain more fabrication than fact , the image of the cowboy, more than any other, has been branded into the American psyche as a symbol of what an American should be—a self-reliant, unregulated, free-spirited, rugged individualist who abides by a strict code of behavior. And since few history books will dispute that western frontier society skirted the line between savagery and civilization, far be it for me to debunk the image of the great American cowboy Today the lawlessness and recklessness of the Old West has been reincarnated on Wall Street. Big banks and investment houses encourage and reward all manner of thievery, larceny, cheating, piracy, and perfidy. The greed and gluttony of over-the-counter derivative traders, subprime loan pushers, and investment firm executives run rampant. They have conned investors, created a nation of debtors, and cowed the regulatory bodies responsible for keeping our financial system on the level. The Bank of America Gang, Goldman Sachs Gang, JP Morgan Gang, et al, have stolen our wealth, cheated us out of our assets, and wreaked havoc on the American economy. These desperadoes don’t draw six-guns and brandish repeating rifles to get their way. Now the hired gunslingers come from Ivy League business and law schools. They carry out their banditry with toxic financial products such as collateral debt obligations, credit default swaps, and exotic subprime mortgages with artificially low interest rates. Sound complicated? Wild Wall Street didn’t evolve naturally over the ages like the frontiers of our own Wild West. It grew from seeds planted only decades ago by the high priests of deregulation, mostly Republicans. Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan made gutting of government oversight a constant battle cry of their administrations. Cultivated by greed, millions of dollars in corporate campaign contributions and chronic lobbying by Wall Street and the big banks, the seeds of lawlessness took root. Little by little, the laws regulating banking and Wall Street grew weaker and weaker. Ironically, it was a Democrat who helped open the floodgates and set the stage for the largest-ever corporate crime wave. Seduced by the siren song of deregulation and battered by a Republican majority in the House, Bill Clinton signed into law the Graham-Leach-Bliley Financial Services Modernization Act in 1999. With a stroke of his pen, he revoked the safeguards of the Glass Steagall Act, obliterating the dividing line between banks and investment firms. And then there was Bush, hog-tying WALL STREET Elizabeth Warren: new sheriff? the regulatory agencies, and allowing the financial barons to take full control. They stole billions from the middle class and created a counterfeit economy based on nothing but phony financial products designed to rope in new suckers to keep the schemes going. Of course, the fake Ponzi-scheme economics failed, and the whole house came crashing down in 2008. A glimmer of hope Even now, in the desert wasteland they created, billionaire bankers and Wall Street vultures are circling low over the carcass of the very middle class that bailed them out. Having feasted on our very essence, they want to suck the last bit of meat from our bones: our pensions, Social Security, health care, and decent wages. It’s “Solidarity Forever” and who is that guy in the middle? Eventually, the Wild West got tamed. Even the most murderous and violent gangs—The Dooling- Daltons, the Hole in the Wall Gang, the Wild Bunch, Billy the Kid, and the James Gang were broken up and rent asunder—their members gunned down, hung, stuck in the hoosegow, or driven to parts unknown. Their inevitable demise was no doubt hastened by the fact that they committed their larceny against banks, railroads and stagecoach lines, people with power, influence and money. There is a glimmer of hope. From across the far horizon a lone rider on a pale horse approaches. Her name is Elizabeth Warren and she sits astride the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog agency created to protect against risky mortgages and unregulated credit agreements. Tapped by President Obama to set up the new agency, she comes a-toting the big-gun reputation of dogged consumer advocate with a Harvard Law professorship in her holster. Time will tell if she will be the new economic sheriff. The black hats on Capitol Hill (Republicans, mostly) are already laying an ambush, stalling a vote on her nomination. Time will tell whether she has the right stuff to restore law and order on this frontier, or if the efficacy of American financial institutions will bite the dust forever. Labor Chorus at membership meeting Gary schoichet
The American Taliban war on women By Gary Schoichet The Taliban are here. They do not wear robes, nor do they carry AK47s, or bandoliers loaded down with bullets. Business suits, white faces, male, is the basic description. They can be found sitting in the halls of Congress and statehouses countrywide where they are waging a war on women that would make their counterparts in Afghanistan envious. They are called Republicans. They want to take decision making about women’s health away from women and give it to those who know best: Republican men. Although long in the making, the current attack started with the Tea Partyish freshman class (80 or so) in the House that said it was dedicated to cutting the deficit and creating jobs. To cut the deficit they took aim at social welfare and health programs that contribute very little to the deficit—they actually save enormous sums by preventing catastrophic illnesses—but greatly to preserving the health and welfare of those in need. Ideology, that blinding light that sees only straight ahead, took over and women and children also, were directly in the sights of men with fundamentalist fingers on the trigger. A little history During the heady liberal times of Richard Nixon, yes, the president Richard Nixon, Title X was enacted by the Congress. Public Law 91-572, or Title X Family Planning Program, also known as “Population Research and Voluntary Family Planning Programs” was enacted in 1970 as part of the Public Health Service Act. It was the first-ever national program aimed at the health needs of women. The services provided by Title X grantees include family planning and provision of contraception, education and counseling, breast and pelvic exams, breast and cervical cancer screening, screenings and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), education about preventing STDs and HIV and counseling for affected patients, referrals to other health care resources, pregnancy diagnosis, and pregnancy counseling. Abortion services are not part of Title X and, in fact, it is prohibited to spend federal monies on abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or preserving a woman’s life. Republicans introduced a bill that would change the definition of rape to “forcible rape” which would rule out statutory rape, the rape of a minor that might not be “forced.” Other types of rapes that wouldn’t have been covered are those in which the woman was drugged or given excessive amounts of alcohol, rapes of women with limited mental capacity, and many date rapes. The outcry was so great that they took it back. So what are they doing The Republicans’ aim is on the almost 100-year old family planning organization Planned Parenthood. Only three percent of Planned Parenthood’s budget goes towards abortion. The remainder is spent on the services provided by Title X. What do they want to do? Following is a compendium, ever changing as the days pass: A 32 percent cut in international family planning–and a note specifically forbidding a cent of it from going to the UNFPA, which provides reproductive and maternal health care to the developing world; $747 million cut from the Women Infant Children (WIC) program, which provides food and nutrition for low-income pregnant women, new mothers and children under the age of five; $110 million cut in teen-pregnancyprevention community grants; $50 C o m m u n i q u e million decrease in maternal and child health block grants, which all states receive; $1.83 billion cut in Head Start programs, which double as crucial pre-kindergarten childcare for low-income families. Those were the feds. In New York, newly elected Assembly member Steve Katz, Republican and Tea Party member, has proposed legislation that would amend state law to deny state funding to Planned Parenthood or any organization that performs abortions. What will this mean to people who turn to Planned Parenthood and other women’s health organizations? In In South Dakota it would be legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care. 2010 Planned Parenthood provided more than 350,000 women with STD/HIV tests; more than 150,000 women with birth control; more than 70,000 women with pap tests; and more than 65,000 women with breast exams. From MoveOn comes some of the more outlandish pieces of proposed legislation. In Georgia, a state legislator wants to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic violence to “accuser.” Victims of other less gendered crimes, like burglary, would remain “victims.” In South Dakota it would be legal to murder a doctor who provides abortion care and in Maryland, and this was passed, all county money for low-income pre-school was cut because women should be home with the kids. It’s all about women all the time with these guys. The population of the United States is a little more than 307 million, 50.7 percent of whom are women. The U.S. House of Representatives has 74 women, 15 of whom are Republicans while the Senate has 17 women, four of whom are Republicans. How did those 91 women vote? J u l y /Au g u s t ’11 5 We [women] are being assaulted everyday. Diane Savino: It’s all about controlling women It’s always been about controlling women, ever since the Garden of Eden. I don’t think they think it though—it comes naturally. There are 50 states and every level of government with budget deficits and look at what’s being cut: health care, day care, education, and workfare which essentially serves women. It is all attacks on women. Women have to wake up. We are being assaulted every day economically and from a policy perspective. I couldn’t justify taking a vote that would turn the clock back on women. There has to be pushback. Why elect more women if that’s how they act. It doesn’t matter what level of society you’re in, women still have the responsibility of taking care of the family. We [women] are never that far from working at McDonalds, no matter how much we’ve achieved in life. Women have to make their own decisions about our own lives. They go after Planned Parenthood by saying they want to stop taxpayer-funded abortions. There are no tax-funded abortions; it’s already written into law. They go after Planned Parenthood to end end-of-term abortions. There are none. It’s all wrapped up in looking at, of thinking that women are second-class citizens. We are not good enough. And what really drove them crazy was when women started taking responsibility for their own sexuality. Diane Savino is a New York State senator representing the 23rd Senatorial District in Brooklyn and Staten Island. Gary schoichet
Page 1 and 2: Communique July/August 2011 A union
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We stand together or fall alone - CWA Local 1180

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