Sunday, July 4, 2010

For all future generations

PSARA’s number one mission in the five months immediately ahead can be summed up in six words: Defend the integrity of Social Security. To protect this basic social program that binds all generations together, we need to build our membership base.

The ominous probability is that the deficit hawks who dominate the fiscal reform commission will call on Congress in December to raid the Social Security trust funds in the name of deficit reduction. We have to make sure Congress says, “No way!”

We know the deficit was caused by tax cuts that funneled billions to the wealthy; by two ongoing wars “on the credit card”; and by the current severe economic crisis, created by Wall Street. We need to get that message to every person we can reach.

That’s why we have to build our membership base. Working with our allies, we intend to call on every member of our Congressional delegation to pledge to “do no harm” to Social Security in the name of deficit reduction. We’re building a Congressional firewall against all such proposals.

Today’s retirees have a duty to fight for a future of economic justice for the oncoming generations, our children and grandchildren. That’s why it’s so urgent to build our membership base.

And that’s why we’re asking you, dear Member, to sign up that relative, friend, neighbor or workmate today. The people at your church, tour senior center, or your community meeting place. We need them; they need us. The coupon is on page 9 and at www.psara.org/join.htm. Sign up that new member today!

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City Council to honor Will Parry

By Robby Stern


We invite all PSARA members and supporters to the Seattle City Council Chambers at 2 p.m. Monday, July 19. At that time, the Council will read and pass a resolution honoring our beloved President Emeritus and Editor of the Retiree Advocate, Will Parry.

This public recognition of Will is richly deserved. Will has been an optimistic and determined advocate for progressive change for more than six decades. His leadership has sustained PSARA as a vibrant and cutting edge force in our community.

We are pleased that the Seattle City Council is recognizing Will’s continuous effort to make our community, our state, our country and our world a kinder and more just place. Join us in the Seattle City Council Chambers to support one of our own as he receives the public recognition he rightfully deserves.

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Welcome, Frank Irigon!

Frank Irigon, a distinguished leader in the Asian Pacific Islander community whose impressive resume would fill this page, has joined the PSARA Executive Board.

Frank brings to the board a rich background of community service in Seattle’s International District and beyond. He was co-founder and first editor of the Asian Family Affair, serving the Northwest API population; co-founder of the International District Community Health Center; a former trustee on the Renton Technical College Board – and the list goes on.

We look forward to years of fruitful leadership from Frank Irigon on issues of social justice. Welcome, Frank!

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A violent wound on the Earth itself

By Will Parry

It is now evident that BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster is like no other catastrophe in history. The word “spill” does nothing to convey the reality. The Canadian wrier Naomi Klein comes closer, calling it “a violent wound inflicted on the Earth itself.”

The disaster’s monstrous toll on creatures and communities is yet to be reckoned up. That toll mounts with each passing minute as -- seventy days after the initial explosion – we continue to watch, as Klein says, “Earth’s guts gush forth, in real time, 24 hours a day.”

“For the first time in history,” writes Michael T. Klare in the June 14 Nation, “oil is pouring into the deep currents of a semi-enclosed sea, poisoning the water and depriving it of oxygen so that entire classes of marine species are at risk of annihilation. It is as if an underwater neutron bomb has struck the Gulf of Mexico, causing little apparent damage on the surface, but destroying the living creatures below.”

The final reckoning is surely generations away. But with what we’ve already seen since the incendiary explosion of April 20, with its instantaneous death toll of eleven oil rig workers, can there be a person of conscience anywhere who is not outraged?

We’ve seen the photos of pitiable oil-soaked pelicans. We’ve read about the threat to the viability of the fisheries as the oil seeps into the nurturing wetlands. We’ve read about endangered sea turtles corralled into “burn fields” and burned alive.

There are costs of a different order that are no less tragic. Klein warns that “the coast’s legendary culture will contract and wither. The fishing families up and down the coat do not just gather food, after all. They hold up an intricate network that includes family tradition, cuisine, music, art and endangered languages – much like the roots of grass holding up the land in the marsh. Without fishing, these unique cultures lose their root system, the very ground on which they stand.”

BP is no different than other oil companies, raking in billions in profits from their single-minded focus on production, and the hell with safety and the environment. The world needs tough regulation of this industry – and a crash program to create renewable alternatives. As long as these pirates ride high, the planet is endangered and so is the human race.

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Driven to Poverty: The Seattle Port Truckers

By Rev. Monica Corsaro and Erica Garrecht-Williams

Imagine for a second being an independent contractor. You’re free to work for whom you choose, you negotiate your rates, you work as much or as little as you want. Sounds pretty good, right?

Wrong. In the port trucking industry, you are called an independent contractor, but your working reality is far from independent. You wake up before dawn, work overtime and make less than minimum wage. You can only haul for one company and they can pay you whatever they want. You have no health insurance and you pay for all your expenses out of pocket. On top of that, you spend countless hours waiting in traffic inhaling toxic diesel fumes.

Since the Port trucking system was deregulated and in the 1980’s, it has become one of the most exploitative industries in the nation. Port truck drivers, who move goods from the Port to freight trains bound for retail stores, used to enjoy a middle class living, but the age of globalization, cheap labor and corporate conglomerates has drastically lowered standards for these drivers, most of whom are immigrants. Retailers like Wal-Mart are fueling a race to the bottom among trucking companies by seeking rates below the actual cost of moving goods. Trucking companies compete by undercutting each other. Drivers compete to get loads. And what our society gets is a system based on cheap labor and the knowledge that there is always “someone” who will do it for cheaper. Billion-dollar corporations benefit. Who loses? The drivers who actually move the goods.

While Wal-Mart might pay the trucking company around $350 dollars per delivery, the drivers only see about $40 of that money, a rate that hasn’t changed in fifteen years. Drivers also have to pay all the expenses of maintaining their trucks: gas, insurance, tonnage fees and all repairs. Since they are technically classified as “independent contractors,” they are not paid an hourly wage, have no benefits, and can’t legally organize a union. Their pay amounts to about $400 a week after expenses. Many drivers are barely scraping by. One driver interviewed said, “Sometimes I have to choose whether to put gas in my truck or food on the table.”
After years of pressure from community and environmental groups, the Port of Seattle passed a plan to ban the oldest trucks from the Port. However, this plan doesn’t the root causes of truck pollution. The truth of the matter is that drivers simply cannot afford to buy and maintain clean new trucks. Our solution is a comprehensive clean trucks plan that requires the trucking companies to own and maintain a clean truck fleet and grant drivers employee status with a living wage, healthcare, and the right to organize a union. We at Puget Sound Sage and the Church Council have been building partnerships of allies who support the truck drivers and want to fix this broken system. Many port neighbors, organizations, and several elected officials are on board.

However, trucking firms are lobbying hard to keep things the way they are. The American Trucking Association blocked a similar plan from passing in L.A. We are fighting back. A national coalition of labor, faith, environmental, and community organizations came together in Washington D.C. in May to lobby for the drivers at a Congress subcommittee hearing restoring the power to regulate. Truck drivers finally got a chance to talk about their horrendous working conditions in front of attentive members of Congress. WA Representative Rick Larson listened to several Seattle drivers tell their stories of exploitation and intimidation. Shocked committee members pledged to investigate Port labor abuses and change the system.

Now, we are inviting local faith leaders to get involved. Several clergy and imams went on a “Port Toxic Tour” in March to see first hand the working conditions drivers face every day. One Lutheran pastor named it “modern-day slavery.” In June, the Church Council held a Prayer Breakfast in honor of the drivers. Christian and Muslims, black, white and everyone in between came together for one purpose: to be unified in our passion for change on behalf of the truck drivers. We as people of faith believe in the power of prayer to make change. We know too that prayer can happen in the streets—as such, we’re hosting a prayer vigil for the drivers later this summer. To getting involved, contact us. We need to work together to right this wrong.
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(Rev. Monica Corsaro is Director of Social Justice Ministries, Church Council of Greater Seattle (mcorsaro@thechurchcouncil.org). Erica Garrecht-Williams is Outreach and Communications Coordinator, Puget Sound Sage. erica@pugetsoundsage.org)

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Robby on the issues:

Saving Social Security from the ‘Hit Men’

by Robby Stern, PSARA President

About a year ago, I heard about the book, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins on Amy Goodman’s radio news show, “Democracy Now”. Perkins had written the book to express his remorse for the role he played in carrying out the economic policies of the United States Empire, or what he refers to as the “Corporatocracy.” He also wanted to educate the public about what is being done to countries around the world in the name of the people of the United States. I finally read the book last month and it is a simple but stunning read with great relevance to the challenges we face in our country today.

Briefly, very well paid Economic Hit Men travel the world selling huge development programs to the often corrupt leadership of other countries. Often there are bribes or other personal trade offs associated with these efforts. These countries then incur huge debt to the World Bank to build the major construction projects; debts that they will never be able to repay. The contracts for these projects are distributed to multinational corporations like Halliburton, KBR, and others, allowing these companies and their executives to amass very large profits from the coffers of these deeply indebted countries. The tax revenues collected by countries like Indonesia, Panama, Columbia, and others are insufficient to pay the debt incurred in building these projects which leads to draconian cuts in social programs that assist the poor and working poor of these countries.

Perkins asserts that if the Economic Hit Men fail to persuade the leadership of these countries, the “jackals” are called in. He used as examples Jaime Roldos of Ecuador and Omar Torrijos of Panama, both of whom met untimely deaths under very suspicious circumstances. Perkins is convinced it was the “jackals” at work.

This book was quite educational but it also got me thinking about what is going on in our country at this very moment. The “Corporatocracy” and their politician friends have made policy decisions that have enormously enriched the people at the top and the corporations they run through tax cuts, bail outs and privatization. Now they are saying to the American people, our deficit is way too high. They are trying to persuade us that they must cut the programs that serve working class and poor people like Social Security, Medicaid, education, etc. As I write this column, Congress is refusing to provide extensions to unemployment benefits and aid to state Medicaid programs, both desperately needed. It is Congress‘s version of applying to the U.S. the policies that have been foisted on poor and working people around the world.

We must not be fooled and we will fight back. Social Security, Medicaid, etc. are NOT the problems. The tax cuts for the rich and unnecessary wars are the problem. (In Iraq, the goal was gaining control of the oil for the oil companies and also controlling this strategically located country and in Afghanistan, the “newly discovered” mineral riches are going to be developed by the U.S. multinational mining companies.) We must be organized and prepared to fight on many fronts.

One example of our efforts is the success of PSARA volunteers in gathering signatures to place I–1098, a high incomes income tax on the ballot. This initiative is one of the ways to fight back against the growing gap in the distribution of wealth in our country. It will force the wealthy to provide a little fairer share of their income for education and health care when it gets on the ballot and, with our help, passes in November.

PSARA and the ARA are gearing up for a huge battle to defend Social Security. The Washington Post reported that we are facing the biggest threat to Social Security in the 75 years of its existence. PSARA will respond in coalition with others to make sure our Congressional representatives do nothing to harm our Social Security system and the benefits promised to American workers.

Please join us at our general membership meeting on Thursday, July 22. (For details on the meeting, see page 2 of this newsletter.) Your participation will make an enormous difference for our small, (but growing!) feisty and determined organization as we do battle with those who would serve the rich and powerful at the expense of poor and working people.

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Building a bridge to justice

By David West

On June 30th, Seattle’s South Park bridge was shut down without a replacement, thus leaving an entire community cut off from the most direct routes to the rest of the city. Rerouting plans and the resulting congestion at key intersections will hurt workers, business and low-income residents from a much larger area than just South Park. The South Park Bridge serves tens of thousands of residents and business in the Duwamish Valley and South King County every day. Buses using the bridge bring union workers to downtown and take families to social and health service providers in and out of the area. Manufacturing workers and small businesses rely on the bridge as a key connection between communities, workplaces and suppliers across the Duwamish.

Puget Sound Sage and members of the New South Park Bridge Coalition consider the failure to replace this valuable bridge a grave injustice to the South Park community. The South Park community, along with the unincorporated areas south of the bridge, is disproportionately low-income and is considerably more diverse than the larger region. Replacing this vital transportation link for communities of color, immigrant families and other working families in our neighborhood is not only a sound investment in our regional transportation infrastructure. It is a matter of social, economic and environmental justice.

Although the decrepit condition of the South Park bridge has been well-known for years, securing funding for a new bridge has always been a low priority. The federal TIGER funds have been awarded to rebuild the Mercer Street corridor. State funds have been allocated or promised for Link light rail, the downtown tunnel, and various other infrastructure projects. None of those projects is as critical to a single community as the South Park bridge is to South Park and the Duwamish Valley.

This year may be the last opportunity for many years to secures Federal funding. Our local governments must successfully apply for Federal TIGER funds or a new bridge is likely never to be built. Sage and its community allies recently met with Port Commissioner John Creighton, after which the Port of Seattle committed $5 million to the bridge. With the Port’s commitment, local and state governments have now pledged $70 million of the $130 million needed for a new bridge. King County will now ask the federal government for the remaining $60 million to start construction.

Too often under-valued low-income neighborhoods get pushed aside for funding. This year, elected leaders got the message: South Park and the Duwamish Valley deserve a transportation infrastructure comparable to that available to the rest of the city.

David West is Executive Director of Puget Sound Sage.

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