RESISTANCE in the WAR on the POOR

Band of Bakers March on Washington

On March 12, representatives of 80 of America’s largest baking companies, representing over 85% of our baking industry, marched in Washington. They were protesting the dangerously low supplies of wheat, rye and other grains. The “Band of Bakers March on Washington” highlighted that the use of corn for ethanol and soybeans for biodiesel is impacting food security here and abroad. World food prices increased 40% in 2007 alone.

            The price of a bushel of wheat rose from $4.71 in February 2007 to $10.40 in February 2008. Durum wheat used in pasta, rose from $5.16 to $16.40 per bushel. The US supply of rye is depleted. Bakers must import rye from Germany and the Netherlands. Converting food to fuel is increasing hunger for billions of the world’s poor. It is a major cause of undocumented immigration to the US.

            Asian rainforests are being bulldozed to plant palm oil plantations for biodiesel for Europe. The loss of these “carbon sinks,” which have taken centuries to develop, contributes to global warming. Water supplies are depleted since 9,000 gallons of water are needed to produce one gallon of biodiesel.

Homeless Occupy Foreclosed Homes 

In some cities, foreclosed homes outnumber homeless people. Street people are becoming squatters. Foreclosed homes often have an advantage over boarded-up homes: sometimes the heat, lights and water are still working.

            There are about 15,000 single-family homes vacant due to foreclosure in Cleveland and suburban Cuyahoga County. On any given night there are 4,000 homeless in Cleveland. The number of homeless people sleeping outside in downtown Cleveland has dropped from 40 to 17 people. This is due in part to the availability of foreclosed homes.

            Squatting in a foreclosed home can be dangerous because they can attract drug dealers, prostitutes and eventually, police. In Philadelphia, the risk is too great to send case workers into vacant homes to check for homeless people needing help. Sometimes the homes are still owned by someone. Candles burning in boarded-up home and squatters killed by fires set to keep warm shows the determination of the homeless to find shelter.

Indian Workers Protest Modern Slavery 

On March 6, 100 guest workers from India walked off their jobs at a Pasagoula, Miss. shipyard. They had been recruited from Bombay to work as pipe fitters and welders in Mississippi and Texas. They were promised green cards or permanent residency in the US for themselves and their families as well as decent wages and working conditions.

            Instead, after paying $15,000-$20,000 to the recruiting companies, they were given 10-month guest worker visas. They were confined in a labor camp and housed 24 people to a trailer. They were forced to pay over $1000 a month for their housing and food and threatened with deportation if they complained. They had their legal documents withheld form them.

            On March 18, they began a “satyagrahah” or truth action. They began their “journey for justice” from New Orleans to Washington DC to spread their story of mistreatment and deception from Signal International, a subcontractor of the giant corporation, Northrop Grumman.

            In Jackson, Miss; Selma, Ala; Atlanta, GA, and Greensboro NC they held news conferences with supporters from civil rights, labor and community organizations. These groups condemned the corporations that profit off human trafficking.

            US immigration agents and other police kept surveillance on them during their 9-day march. On March 27, they crowded into the Indian Embassy in Washington where for three hours they pressed Ambassador Ronen Sen to advocate on their behalf. Sen offered little in the way of concrete action to correct the inhuman treatment practice in the government sanctioned H2B guest worker program.

            During the rest of their stay in DC they held public rallies and met with members of Congress about legislation being pushed by the Bush administration to expand the guest worker program.  As a result of these actions, the Dept. of Justice has opened a human trafficking investigation into Signal’s use of the H2B program. They also filed a class-action lawsuit against the company.

            Other foreign workers brought into the hurricane-ravaged areas of the Gulf Coast to do cleanup and construction, pick crops and work in hotels have also charged that they were lied to and abused under the guest worker program. For more info go to www.neworleansworkerjustice.org.

Okinawans Protest US Military 

About 6,000 people came out in the driving rain and wind on March 23 to protest the continued presence of the US military in Okinawa, Japan. The rally took place after the rape of a 14-year-old schoolgirl by a US Marine. The protest cited a string of crimes involving US military. This includes the murder of a taxi driver for which a man from the US Navy is being questioned.

            This was the largest demonstration against the US military there since 1995, after US service members gang raped a 12-year-old girl.

            In the current case, the soldier was handed over from Japanese custody to US military authorities. All they did was impose a two-week, round-the-clock curfew on US soldiers and relatives at three bases in Japan. The girl has dropped the charges after intense media coverage of the case. Some of the media blamed the girl.

            Over 40,000 US troops are stationed in Japan. Over half of them are in Okinawa.

Fossil Fools Day 

On April 1, people around the world took direct action against the fossil fuel empire. Their message was to avert cataclysmic climate change, we must stop burning fossil fuels. They shut down gas stations, blockaded power plants, occupied coal mines and oil wells, held Critical mass bike rides, disrupted road construction and occupied offices of banks that invest in coal.

            Farmers in Ireland are using civil disobedience to fight a natural gas pipeline that Shell is building on their land. Indigenous tribes throughout the Amazon physically block oil company access to their lands. Activists in Australia have shut down the worlds largest coal export facility repeatedly. In Northwest New Mexico people from the Dine tribe have occupied the site of a proposed coal plant for over a year.

            The fossil fuel industry has brought nothing but terror, death and destruction to the land and communities it occupies. The mountains of Appalachia are being blown to pieces for cheap coal. The tributaries of the Amazon are being poisoned by oil extraction.

            Carbon offsets perpetuate the notion that we can fight global warming without stopping our use of fossil fuels. They do little to actually reduce emissions. They destroy biodiversity and actively impede the ability of communities to live self sufficiently. For example, companies have stolen indigenous land in Brazil and planted exotic trees on it, supposedly to offset their emissions. The indigenous people call these plantations “green deserts.” They are off limits to hunting and gathering. But there isn’t much to hunt and gather because most of the native plants and animals have been killed off.

            The purpose of Fossil Fools Day was to obstruct the fossil fuel empire to the point where the extraction and burning of oil, coal and gas are no longer profitable. For more info go to www.fossilfoolsday.org and www.risingtidenorthamerica.org.