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Corporate War on the People

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Resistance in the War
Against the Poor

OTHER WINTER 2008 ARTICLES

 Ebonya Washington analyzed the family composition and voting records of the US Congress. She found that male legislators with daughters voted more humanely on moral and religious issues. These included abortion and birth control. Those without daughters were less humane. Washington is a professor at Yale University

            Conservative nutcase Debbie Schlussel concluded “Congressmen who are liberal are more likely to have slutty daughters. And therefore, they are more likely to support abortion for selfish, personal reasons.”

~ bitch
4930 NE 29^th Ave, Portland OR 97211

            • The three largest providers of US oil are Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.         

            • Oil is Mexico’s largest industry. Tourism is their #2 industry. 

            • Mexico is the #1 foreign buyer of Wisconsin products. 

            • Since 1994 when NAFTA passed, the US has flooded Mexico with cheap corn and other subsidized crops. This forced millions of Mexican farmers and campesinos out of business. Since then, one half million Mexicans immigrate each year to the US.           

• The US grants 50,000 visas worldwide to immigrants who are unskilled workers. Mexicans receive only 5 of those work permits. 

• In 2000, Bush and Mexican President Fox discussed allowing the free flow of people across the US-Mexico borders. This would have been the second phase of NAFTA. (NAFTA allows the free flow of big business across the border. But workers must risk their lives to cross.) Instead, the US Congress now wants to build a 2000 mile wall between the borders.

There are 19,689 councillors across England. Only 168 of them are minority women. Minority women make up 4.6% of the UK population.  Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equalities wants the number of minority women councillors to rise to around 1,000.

“Traditionally people have seen being a councillor as a white middle class hobby for men. The 2.3 million Black, Asian and ethnic minority women in the UK make a great contribution to our society and economy. We need them to be represented at every level of our democracy from magistrates in their local communities to MPs at Westminster.”

 College tuition has outpaced inflation three times. In the 1960’s Pell grants covered 75% of tuition. Now the average college student graduates with $20,000 in debt. They have only six months to begin paying interest on student loans. As a result, some are thrown into low wage jobs, which pay 30% less than in 1968.

            After Hurricane Katrina, many college graduates joined collectives to provide food, clean water, legal support and solidarity. Many could only stay a week or two because they were chained by loans. What does it say when parts of our nation are in ruins, but we cannot permit the most able bodied to come to its aid? Yet we support them being sent needlessly into corrupt war?

The good news is: African Americans add $45 billion to the economy of North Carolina through spending and taxes. The bad news is that Black businesses see very little of it.      African American purchases accounted for one of every seven dollars spent. Black buying power rose 160% between 1990 and 2006. North Carolina is the eighth largest African American market in the nation.

            Blacks make up 21.8% of the population. The average size of both Black and white North Carolina families is three people. Most Black and white families have a high school education. But Blacks earn almost $20,000 less per household than whites.

            The Economic Mobility Project tracked the incomes of 2,367 American families for the past 30 years. 730 of those families were Black. They found that the earnings of Black Women increased. But the earnings of Black men, although still higher than the women’s,  declined. In 2004, the average African American family income was 58% that of a white family. 2/3 of white children but only 1/3 of Black children grow up to have higher incomes than their parents.

University of North Carolina Study

Over 40 billion cans end up in landfills. Each un-recycled can or bottle must be replaced by one made from virgin materials. That generates about 3.5 million tons of greenhouse gases each year. Extracting bauxite from which aluminum is made causes more environmental damage. Even more greenhouse gases are emitted from the billions of single-serving plastic bottles that are not recycled each year.

            Water is the cheapest and healthiest beverage of all. Tap water requires no disposable packaging or shipping. But if you must have soda, buy it in two-liter bottles. And recycle those bottles!

            • Americans spend more for health care than any other country. But the US ranks only 37^th in health care performance, behind France, Italy and Columbia. And 47 million have no health insurance.

            • Americans make up only 4% of the world’s 6.6 billion people. But we consume 25 percent of all resources. People in Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia still have many babies. But industrialized countries like the US contribute far more to climate change, ozone destruction and over fishing.

            • Food prices climbed 5.3 percent in 2007. Wages increased 3 percent. Low-income Americans spend 20 percent of our income for food. Others spend only 7 percent of their income to eat.

            • 170 countries offer paid maternity leave. 98 countries offer at least 14 weeks off with pay.  The US is not one of them.

• The US had a record 482 billionaires in 2007—and 5 million more people below the poverty line.  In 1982 the US had just 13 billionaires. In ’82 the highest paid CEO made $108 million and the average full-time worker made $34,199. In 2006 the highest paid hedge fund manager hauled in $1.7 billion, the highest paid CEO made $647 million.  The average worker made $34,861 with vanishing health and pension coverage.

• Only 27.7 per cent of US adults have a college degree

• US elite with college degrees: .7% of US Indians; 6.5% of US Asians, 6.6% US Latinos; 9.2% of US Blacks; 73% of US Whites

             • More than 15 US workers are killed on the job every day. A worker becomes injured or ill every 2.5 seconds.

            • In 2005, over 4.2 million workers were injured and 5,702 workers killed due to job hazards. 50,000 died from occupational diseases.

            • 30 years ago Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act. (OSHA). It promised every worker the right to a safe job. But over 8.5 million workers still have no protection. The Bush administration, acting on behalf of corporate interests, has killed dozens of worker protection measures under development at OSHA. This includes rules on cancer causing substances, reactive chemicals and infectious diseases like TB. The Bush administration has the worst record on safey rules in OSHA’s entire history.

            • Job fatalities among Latin@ workers have increased by 58%. Foreign born workers usually work in high-risk, often unregulated occupations. Nearly one in four fatally injured foreign-born workers was employed in the construction industry. Many are unaware of their rights to safety on the job or fear reporting workplace injuries.ries.

            • Less than 1/3 of the costs of occupational illnesses and injuries are paid for by workers’ compensation (funded by employers). Taxpayers pick up 20% of the tab through Medicaid and Medicare. Injured workers and their families pay the largest share.

For the first time in over 40 years, most of the children in public schools in the 11 Southern states are poor. The Southern Education Foundation found that 54% of students in the South come from low-income families. This is a significant increase from 37% in the late 1980s. In Louisiana, 84% of public school children are poor. The report cited plant closings and congressional cuts in anti-poverty programs for the deepening poverty.

 Only 15 minutes before Earl Wesley Berry was to be executed by lethal injection in Mississippi, the US Supreme Court issued a stay of execution. The high court has recently blocked three executions.

            On Sept. 25, the Supremes announced they would rule on the constitutionality of lethal injection and whether it constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.” Lethal injection is used in 36 states. The court has declared executing minors illegal and executing mentally retarded offenders unconstitutional. (Mighty white of them.)

            In the past 30 years, 124 death row inmates were found to be innocent and were released. In 2006, there were 114 death sentences issued and 53 executions in the US, the lowest in 30 years. 83% of the executions occurred in the South, mostly in Texas. Statistics show that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime.

            The American Bar Association report in October found that a Black defendant is four times more likely to receive a death penalty than a white defendant. Other flaws were inadequate counsel for defendants, misconduct of prosecutors, failure to preserve physical and biological evidence, unreasonable rules that make it difficult to file petitions or file for DNA testing, crime labs not using up-to-date methods and unclear instructions to juries. The ABA is calling for the abolition of death penalties.

A survey of several European countries for a French newspaper found:  Bush has an 8% approval rating in Italy, 7% in Spain and UK and only 3% in France and Germany.