Monday MArch 15, 6:30 - 8:30

 Saturday, February 20, 2010 the activist community on the North Shore and Greater Boston decided to liven up the dormant debate over healthcare. Since the Democrats have been in power in Washington, there has been a lack of respect for the ideals and values of the people who elected them reflected in their rhetoric and debate. 

Local activists have taken to the streets to support them in their efforts to get something done and they have shone a lack of fortitude for the challenge. 

The people here locally have decided to remind them of the issue and try to strengthen their for pushing through. The accompanying video comes from a NECN feed.

President Crosby uses national stage to explain Mass election result.

 

On the evening of January 19, Hart Research Associates conducted a telephone

survey among 810 voters in the special election for U.S. Senate in

Massachusetts. The survey, conducted on behalf of the AFL-CIO, has a margin

of error of ±3.8 percentage points. Note that the survey data were weighted to

be consistent with the actual election results, yielding a five-point margin for

Brown (50% Brown, 45% Coakley, 1% other candidates, 4% refused). This

memo reviews the survey’s main findings.

    In glitzy shadows, a health reform foe lurks Boston Globe On the same day thousands protested in Washington against health care legislation, their rich proprietor was toasted by Manhattan's fashionable socialites during the City Opera's opening night, where he was lauded for his support of the arts. Lee Fang December 6, 2009 --> Lee Fang

 

By Lee Fang   December 6, 2009    

IN EARLY November, thousands of protesters descended on Capitol Hill to hear Representative Michele Bachmann decry House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “takeover’’ of health care. As they disembarked from their buses, they were greeted with doughnuts and coffee, and handed protest signs and talking points about socialized medicine. Few of the protesters were aware that a right-wing billionaire had paid for the meals, buses, or salaries of the helpful guides. On the same day, this rich proprietor was toasted by Manhattan’s fashionable socialites during the City Opera’s opening night, where he was lauded for his support.

David Koch, an oil and gas billionaire who is the ninth-richest person in the United States, according to Forbes magazine, was simultaneously responsible for a $100 million refurbished opera house and a protest that featured signs comparing health reform to the Holocaust. The two sides to Koch’s activism aren’t unique - they harken to a long tradition of conservative tycoons who were great philanthropists with one hand and ruthless powerbrokers with the other. But Koch’s hidden presence in the health care debate illustrates the extent to which the Old Right is creating - and then hiding behind - the grassroots fervor of middle-class opponents of health reform.

Across the New York social circuit, Koch is hailed for his donations to reputable causes, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But for years, Koch has also been funneling tens of millions of dollars to more subterranean efforts that reflect his conservative politics. His flagship group, Americans for Prosperity, sponsored Bachmann’s rally against health care reform. Although the Lincoln Center’s State Theater is now called the David H. Koch Theater, none of Koch’s right-wing fronts bear his name.

Americans for Prosperity is leading the way in channeling recession-era distress into anger at President Obama. This “grassroots’’ group has orchestrated many of the tea party protests, as well as steering activists into disrupting town hall meetings of Democratic members of Congress. Americans for Prosperity’s tactics are not new. Just as Koch inherited his oil business from his father, Americans for Prosperity borrows from the ultra-right group also founded in part by his dad, the John Birch Society.

Conceived by Robert Welch and a small group of conservative industrialists, including Fred Koch - David’s father and the namesake of the family firm of Koch Industries - the John Birch Society cloaked its pro-business, anti-civil rights agenda in the rhetoric of the Cold War.

The Birch Society battled communism by labeling President Kennedy a traitor who had to be impeached, denounced taxes as a creeping red menace, and attacked the forces of racial integration as being directed by the Kremlin.

Cushioned with large donations from Koch and others, the Birch Society helped propel Barry Goldwater to the Republican nomination in 1964 and helped Republicans make gains in the congressional midterms of 1966.

Like Americans for Prosperity, the John Birch Society rarely acknowledged its funding from the very rich. Instead, it depicted itself as a citizens group merely interested in American ideals of freedom. Rather than argue the policy nuances of entitlement programs or new regulations, the Birch Society marshaled opposition by depicting progressive reform as capitulation to the Soviet Union. In that polarized environment, the interests of millionaires suddenly became aligned with patriotic families who wanted to do their part against the communist threat.

Shortly after the Birch Society faded, David Koch founded Americans for Prosperity in 1984 (then known as Citizens for a Sound Economy). Americans for Prosperity still portrays itself as a defender of freedom and the average Joe. On the Americans for Prosperity website, financial regulations, health reform, net neutrality, and the estate tax are all assailed as forms of socialism.

While David Koch is celebrated as a patron of New York opera, his Americans for Prosperity donations have gone largely unsung. With his millions, he will not only have saved this year’s performance of the “Nutcracker,’’ but also contributed greatly to the obstruction of universal health care, the denial of climate change, and the derailment of much of President Obama’s domestic agenda.

His dad would be pleased.

Lee Fang works for the Center for American Progress in Washington.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Last modified: Wednesday, December 9, 2009 12:19 AM EST

 

By Chris Stevens / The Daily Item

SAUGUS - The Board of Selectmen hit Jin Asian Restaurant with a triple-whammy Tuesday when it voted twice to suspend its alcohol, entertainment and common victualers licenses and just as a precaution to roll back its hours of operations.

Jin officials, who were no-shows at the hearing, will shut its doors still owing the town $257,183.83 in back taxes.

The board held two show-cause hearings on the troubled Route 1 north restaurant, one for defaulting on its taxes and another tied to a variety of violations that include two shootings, failure to get the town's approval for renovations, making renovations while its license is suspended and serving alcohol while its all-alcohol license was suspended.

The Alcohol Beverage Control Commission suspended Jin's license on Nov. 25 because of administrative wrong doings. Ira Zaleznik, special council to the board, suggested the selectmen move ahead with the show-cause hearings despite the ABCC's actions, essentially a back up.

Zaleznik said the appeal period on the ABCC's revocation has not run its course yet so theoretically if Jin official's got the appeal overturned in court then walked into Town Hall with a large check all before Dec. 31 then it could reopen.

If that happened, Zaleznik said the town would be in the same position its in now.

Selectman Michael Serino agreed the board should vote to revoke despite the fact that the ABCC beat them to the punch.

"History shows that establishments have run to court and get suspensions overturned. They did it a few weeks ago," he said referring to the fact that Jin had another license suspension overturned in early November.

During the second hearing Zaleznik again urged board members to vote regardless of the early votes and the ABCC rulings.

"Again its the nature of a backup to the backup," he said. "Even though it seems improbable they could get the license and put themselves back in business."

Serino said he would also like to take a vote to roll back the restaurant's hours on the basis that if the improbable did happen and it got its licenses back in court, the judge might at least uphold the roll back.

Town Meeting member Janet Leuci said she would support any action the board could take on behalf of the little guy who struggles to pay his taxes while Jin neglects theirs. She said she believed the restaurant brought irreparable harm to the town's reputation.

Stephen Sweezey, also a Town Meeting member, pointed out that the $250,000 is a lot of money that instead of being used for town expenses is "going into the pockets of a company that doesn't play by the rules."

The board voted 3-0 twice to revoke Jin's entertainment, all-alcohol and common victualers license and to roll its hours of operations back to midnight permanently.

Chairman Donald Wong sat out the hearing do to a conflict of interest and Selectman Michael Kelleher had a previous engagement.

Last modified: Monday, November 30, 2009 5:00 PM EST

 

By David Liscio / The Daily Item

LYNN -- Women from across the North Shore gathered to hear what Roselyn Maina of Lynn and two others had to say about alleged unfair labor practices, at the 5th annual Women's Solidarity Breakfast.

A new member of IUE/CWA Local 201, Maina works for the Budget Rent A Car office at Logan International Airport in Boston.

"Her story is one of determination and courage," said Rosa Blumenfeld, an organizer for the Lynn-based North Shore Labor Council.

The breakfast, hosted by the Women's Committee of the North Shore Labor Council and held at the Lynn Housing Authority, was an opportunity for women to join in solidarity, enjoying each other's company and listening to the strategies that have improved their lives, Blumenfeld said.

"Even though Avis and Budget are owned by the same company, are supervised by the same managers and share the same fleet of cars, Avis workers get better treatment because they are in the union," Maina told the audience. "Managers were always telling us A before B, Avis is union, so this is why it is the way it is. So I said, that's why I want to be in the union. Managers tried to tell us that we didn't need the union. They were so sure they were going to win the union election"

Marie Prophett, an employee of Union Hospital in Lynn, is a new member of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East.

"We hung in there, it was tough, but we won," she said. "Now we are bargaining our first contract. The nurses at Union Hospital here in Lynn were already in the union. We support staff workers said we've got to push for the union too. When management found out, they tried to convince us that we already get the same benefits as the people in the union do but that wasn't true. When we started to organize, there was all of this misinformation coming out, and even threats that if we voted in the union, people would get fired."

Corporina Belis, part of the "Hyatt 100", also attended the breakfast to share the story of what hotel did to her and her co-workers this year. "When we complained about how we had not gotten our usual raise this year, the managers blamed it on the economy. They told us the housekeepers we had been training from the outside agency were only there to replace us when we get sick or go on vacation," she said. "Then, on August 31, our managers called a 3 p.m. meeting. They told us that it wasn't their fault, we were no longer being employed by Hyatt, and that we were to be replaced by the women that we had been training who would earn $8 per hour, doing a job that we did for $15-$17 per hour."

Belis said she was accompanied to her locker, given a trash bag in which to put her belongings, and asked to hand in her employee name tag. "This was how they treated me after I gave my life to this company, and had worked there for 23 years," she said.

Alex Brown, vice president of IUE-CWA Local 201 in Lynn, closed the breakfast with some advice: "The best way that we can better our lives is by taking it to the streets and organizing. There is a law in congress right now that will make it easier for any of us to join a union. It's called the Employee Free Choice Act, so call your congressmen and senators and tell them to vote for it," she said.

AFGE has set up a page for people to send their best wishes to Sgt. Kimberly
Munley who risked her life to stop the alleged Ft. Hood gunman.

AFGE will give her the messages on Nov. 20.

Here's the AFGE site where you can send her messages:
http://www.afge.org/index.cfm?fuse=content&contentID=2064

Meanwhile, I hear another union hero, ALPA member, Chesley B. Sullenberger
III, will lead the Tournament of Roses Parade.

This reminds me that while the Teabag protesters hit the Hill over the
weekend, there was pick up on the fact that those anti-govt yellers who got
sick were aided by govt workers, went home on govt transportation (Metro),
etc. But many of those involved in providing the govt services also are
union members, something we should keep in mind to point out when
highlighting the hypocrisy of the teabag group.

Tula Connell
AFL-CIO Managing Editor
815 16th St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20006
www.aflcio.org