Category: Uncategorized

Protest the crimes of British Petroleum and the painfully slow and woefully inadequate response by both BP and the US Government

From the People’s Gulf Emergency Summit Saturday in New Orleans, we found out that the Deepwater Horizon Unified Response Command Center has moved to New Orleans, near the infamous Superdome where many poor and black people were forced to evacuate to after Hurricane Katrina.

We will be delivering provisional demands. Come out to show your opposition to the destruction of the Gulf.

When: Monday, June 21

Time: Noon to two

Where: 1250 Poydras St (Eni Petroleum)

Bring: your signs, bullhorns, and energy.

(There may be opportunity for Civil Resistance)

for more information: 504 644 7214 gulfemergencysummit (at) gmail. Thanks to Cindy Sheehan for design.

1) Stop oil drilling in the gulf, full compensation, retraining and new employment, including public works, for all affected

2) The government and entire oil industry must allocate all necessary resources to stop and clean up the spill, prevent oil from hitting shore, protect wildlife, treat injured wildlife, and repair all devastation. Full support, including by compensation, must be given to peoples’ efforts on all these fronts and to save the Gulf.

3) No punishment to those taking independent initiative; no gag orders on people hired, contracted, or who volunteer; those responsible for this crime against the environment and the people should be prosecuted.

4) Full mobilization of scientists and engineers. Release scientific and technical data to the public; no more lying and covering up. Immediately end use of dispersants; full, open scientific evaluation of nature and impact of dispersants. Fund all necessary scientific and medical research.

5) Full compensation for all losing livelihood and income from the disaster.

6) Provide necessary medical services to those suffering health effects of the spill. Protect the health of and provide necessary equipment for everyone involved in clean up operations. Full disclosure of medical and scientific studies about the effects of the oil disaster.

New Orleans, La. C3/Hands Off Iberville and other New Orleans Community groups will hold a press conference on June 29 at 5:30 PM in front of the Housing Authority of New Orleans headquarters to demand the federal government create a massive federal public works program to address the current housing, jobs, and Gulf oil spill crises. We will then attend HANO’s public hearing on their 2010-2011 annual plan and deliver this message to the federal-government controlled agency.

Instead of cutbacks planned by HANO, and other city, state, and federal agencies and officials across the country, we need an expansion of government services to meet unmet and pressing human needs. This initiative can be financed by immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan and closing foreign military bases, ending and forcing repayment of bank and other corporate bailouts, and taxing the wealthy.

New Orleans remains devastated 5 years after Hurricane Katrina. Affordable housing remains scarce, with the city having the nation’s highest percentage of renters–41%–paying at last half their wages in rent and utilities. Homelessness has quadrupled, per capita, since Katrina, while over 34,000 families are on waiting lists for public housing and section 8 vouchers–and thousands more would sign up if HANO reopened the waiting lists! Charity hospital, the major provider of health care pre-Katrina, remains closed–not because of a “natural” disaster, but rather due to the very human, and intentional actions taken by Governors Blanco, and now Jindal, to kill public health care.

New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast are now being hit with the oil drilling disaster that is putting thousands more of people out of work and destroying communities and the environment. These city and regional disasters are on top of the worst economic depression since the 1930s facing the entire country, with over 20% of the workforce either unemployed or underemployed.

How are governments from the national to local level responding to these multiple crises? With more cuts to social services, further privatizations, while the wars and bailouts of the wealthy, and their corporations, continue. HANO’s proposed cutbacks for fiscal year 2010-2011 are representative of the austerity measures being taken by Republicans and Democratic Party-controlled legislatures, administrations, and agencies across the country. HANO executive director David Gilmore, who has played a major role in public housing demolition and privatization across the country over the last generation, is continuing that legacy in New Orleans. The 2010-2011 agency plan he crafted, in collaboration with the Obama administration, includes:

• Demolition of all 127 apartments at the Florida development, and no plans to rebuild. Before its redevelopment, pre-Katrina, Florida had 734 units (see p. 33, HANO Annual Plan, 2010-11)
• Demolition of approximately 500 scattered site apartments (of a total of over 700), with no plans to rebuild. HANO is working with the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority to decide their “best use”–i.e. handing over highly valued real estate parcels to developers (see pp. 34-43; 63, Attachment K, p,.10; HANO Annual Plan, 2010-11 ).
• Privatization and demolition at Iberville. HANO plans to apply for a HOPE VI grant to “redevelop” the Iberville project into a “mixed income” development. As happened at St. Thomas, “redevelopment” and “mixed income” are code words for drastically reducing the current stock of approximately 850 public housing apartments, resulting in further displacement, hardship, and reduction in affordable housing (see p. 30, HANO Annual Plan 2010-11 )

Is there an alternative to the austerity and further misery planned by HANO and other levels of government? Do we have to sit idly by while BP destroys the Gulf and the government subordinates itself to these corporate criminals, relegated to providing security and public relations services? The success of US’s public works program shows there is an alternative: 75 years ago the Civil Works Administration, in four and a half months built or repaired 33,850 public building, carried out 3,220 flood control projects, built from scratch 1,000 airports and 3,700 playgrounds. Within the first week of its operation, it employed 1.1 million workers and employment peaked at 4.2 million. The total cost of the project was $30 billion in 2006 dollars.

In 6 years the Works Progress Administration (WPA) built 116,000 bridges, 5,600 new schools, 30,000 new public buildings, financed thousands of public murals, put on thousands of plays and concerts, paid for local histories and employed nearly eight million people –in a country with less than half our present population.

We can, and must, do it again.

New Orleans Community Groups Demand Federal Government Create Massive Public Works Program to Address Housing, Jobs, and Gulf Spill Crises.

No to Austerity. Public Works to Stop the Spill, Clean up the Gulf, and Rebuild America and World.

Press Conference: Tuesday, June 29, 5:30 PM at the HANO office, 4100 Touro St., New Orleans

For more information, contact Jay Arena at 504-520-9521

By Nick Braune

Each year billions of dollars are ripped off from workers, through all sorts of little scams. It is very common apparently, when workers leave a job, for their employers to “forget” to pay for the last week or so of work. And employers scam billions of dollars annually by underpaying overtime hours. Whether lots of money is involved or not so much, it is still a fairness issue, and wage theft hurts the wage-earners, their dependents and the community. Checking online, I found several organizations fighting against wage theft nationally; it is a huge problem.

One new attorney working on this issue is in the Rio Grande Valley. I met him at the groundbreaking for the new South Texas Civil Rights Project (STCRP) office planned in Alamo. (Their current offices are getting too crowded at Cesar Chavez Road and Business 83.) The lawyer is Elliott Tucker, and he recently joined STCRP after graduating from Georgetown University and spending a year or so with another non-profit organization. I asked for an interview.

Braune: When I spoke to you at the groundbreaking, I was interested in your project and have since looked online and found that this is not a small issue at all. Could you please tell the readers a bit about what you are doing.

Tucker: I am the employment justice attorney for the South Texas Civil Rights Project, where my job is to find both legal and non-legal solutions to the rampant problem of wage theft in the Valley. In Hidalgo County and Cameron County, we offer monthly legal clinics for victims of wage theft. At these clinics we give a brief presentation on labor law, conduct a legal intake, and then provide legal orientation to the appropriate non-profit or government agency.

I am working closely with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, LUPE, and the Start Center. For instance, in close coordination with LUPE, I have developed a Justice of the Peace workshop which empowers workers to file their own small claims lawsuits. The goal of this project is to both empower workers through civic participation and also ensure that all victims of wage theft have legal redress.

Braune: What are the most common offenses you are expecting to find?

Tucker: Two patterns are perhaps the most common. Simply stringing along the workers, telling them it will be another week or so before they will be paid…

Braune: …a little later and a little later….

Tucker: Yes, and the second most common one is just as simple, paying the workers less than minimum wage.

Greed and ignorance are the driving force behind wage thefts. The range of excuses for non-payment runs the gamut from “But I didn’t get paid either” to “You didn’t do a good job.” However, under federal and state law, an honest day’s work deserves an honest day’s pay. No excuses.

More disturbingly, in the Valley confused individuals feel that just because a worker does not have a social security number, they can pay that worker whatever they want. Oftentimes these individuals feel they are doing the worker a favor and get offended when the reality of the law comes barking. However, state and national law set the wage rate for all human beings, regardless of immigration status.

Another common problem is willful ignorance. Many reputable businesses hire an under-capitalized subcontractor to do the recruiting, supervision, and (scant) payment of workers who have questionable immigration status. It’s an assumed win-win for the business because they get labor on the cheap and they think they can plead ignorance. However, state and national law was drafted with this trick in mind, and workers can often demand wages from both entities as “joint employers.”

Braune: Do undocumented workers hesitate to come forward with complaints?

Tucker: Yes, but they should have far less fear. Although some build up unnecessary worries in their minds, there are a good number of protections in place if they do come forward.

Braune: What further developments do you envision? — Lawsuits? New state laws?

Tucker: My first goal is to educate low wage workers in the Valley about their rights, so all workers know the basic minimum wage and, if violated, know they have legal recourse regardless of their immigration status. Education is the key. However, education cannot open the eyes of the willfully blind, so I do anticipate lawsuits being necessary in the cases of extreme and systemic abuse.

As far as new state laws go, given the current political climate in Texas, I am not optimistic about new laws to address wage theft. Unless there is a fundamental shift in the political winds in Austin, I view my project as focusing primarily on education and litigation, not pushing legislative reform.

[This article also appeared June 23, 2010 in the Mid-Valley Town Crier]

In a perfect world the health insurance industry would be liquidated overnight, replaced by a universal care fund, aka single payer. But until last week, the reason for abolition wasn’t so clearly phrased by the insurance industry itself. Now they say it plain: “You can’t make us cover Tiny Tim.”

If the insurance industry wants to boast that it can cut Tiny Tim out of its future, then it should expect the righteous judgment that falls upon the head of each and every Scroogelike creature–a lonesome and cold gravestone. Nor should we forget to pick their corporate pockets thoroughly as we ready their legacies for the burial that their recent history so richly deserves.

For a day or two anyway, Washington danced enthusiastically with the profiteering managers of our health care economy. And from a distance it looked like a partnership that had half a chance. Then the creeps started whispering little things in Washington’s ear.

But situations like this are what elbows are made for, and it would be interesting to see who would vote against a little old law of one sentence only. “Any insurance company who refuses to cover a child will forfeit all of its assets immediately to the US Treasury.”

Oh, and “God bless us all, every one!”–gm

On the Mexico side of the international boundary, the Rio Grande has historically been called the Rio Bravo. In this appeal, we refer to this 1885-mile long international river as the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo.

The watershed of the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo covers eight states in our two countries. In the United States, that would include Colorado, New Mexico,and Texas. In Mexico the watershed includes Durango, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas.

For their agricultural, industrial, commercial,and residential existence, millions of US citizens and millions of Mexican citizens have historically relied on the natural hydrological flows of the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo and its tributaries, from its headwaters in the Colorado Rockies all the way to its mouth as it flows into the Gulf of Mexico.

Due to drought, just a few years ago, the waters of the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo dried up before it could reach the Gulf.

In this era of global climate change, the likelihood of more drought seems imminent. In this past year Texas just came out of a period of the worst drought on record. Yet, new threats are looming on the horizon for the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo, especially on the Texas-Mexico portion of the river.

The Mexico side of the border is the fastest growing region in Mexico. Similarly, the Texas side of the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo is the fastest growing region in the United States. Such growth will continue to put a lot of added pressure on the waters of the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo, both in the terms of consumption as well as contamination.

As it is, according to American Rivers, the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo is one of the most endangered rivers in North America. According the World Wildlife Fund, the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo is the seventh most endangered river in the world.

The newest endangerment to the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo is upon us. This threat is somewhat stealth, as it is under the radar of most state, federal and international agencies and organizations. For over a century, the State of Texas has regulated its waters based on the archaic “rule of capture,” or “right of capture.” Essentially, the biggest pump and pumper owns the water that can be extracted.

Based on this “rule”, an application has been made by a private party to extract 47,000 acre feet per year out of the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo watershed. An acre foot is equal to roughly 326,000 gallons of water.

The application is from Clayton Williams, Jr.’s Fort Stockton Holdings to the Middle Pecos County Groundwater Conservation District (MPGCD). The application proposes to extract 41,000,000 gallons of water a day, or about 15,000,000,000 gallons of water per year–for 30 plus years–out of the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo watershed.

If approved, the permit would allow 45,000,000,000,000 gallons of water to be taken out of the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo watershed as a result of this one application alone. Others will follow. The preliminary hearing will be held this coming Tuesday, April 20, 2010, in Fort Stockton. The final decision will be rendered on May 18, 2010.

With all this in mind, the Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC), a non-profit organization based at the Laredo Community College on the banks of the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo, along with our sister organization in Mexico, el Centro Internacional del los Estudios del Rio Bravo (CIER), has allied with the City of Fort Stockton.

We are also allying with not only the citizens of Pecos County but also the millions of citizens of the international community who reside within and depend upon the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo for their existence. On their behalf, we are appealing to US Congressmen to help us prevent such an unprecedented action that would be taken without adequate science.

We request that Congressmen please utilize your office and position of authority to call for a moratorium on any extraction of waters from the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo watershed. Approval of such extraction of billions of gallons of water a year should NOT be granted.

There is a need for time, time for an adequate hydrological study to be performed that would reveal what impact such a diversion away from the international watershed would have. Our concern is that there is insufficient science that would show the impact on the natural hydrological cycle of the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo watershed, on which millions of bi-national citizens downriver depend.

Under the 1944 Treaty with Mexico, the waters of Fort Stockton and Pecos County, Texas, are within the geographical boundaries of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC). Never before has a massive amount of water been extracted and transferred out of the watershed and IBWC boundaries. This is a precedent-setting case. How would this impact the spirit and intent of the 1944 treaty?

The City of Fort Stockton is a small community of some 7,500 population. The total population of Pecos County is about 20,000. Alone, they are hard-pressed to handle the magnitude of this challenge. The residents there already have a historic natural spring, Comanche Springs, that is dried up most of the year due to high impact pumping of the aquifer for irrigation by the same businessman who now wishes to export water out of the watershed to Midland, Texas, for profit.

Find below a resolution drafted by the City Council of the City of Fort Stockton. Together , the City Council and RGISC appeal to you to intervene and prevent, this dangerous hydrological precedent. If this permit is allowed, others will follow. Diverting Rio Grande-Rio Bravo waters away from almost ten million inhabitants within the IBWC boundaries would be to divert water away from the fastest growing region in our two countries that already depends on this river.

This action is being done for one entity’s profit. It is also being done so that other areas outside the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo watershed region could experience economic growth. That such an action would jeopardize the growth along the border seems discriminatory against those who live on the US-Mexico border.

We are also writing the IBWC, the Council on Environmental Quality-Office of the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, US Fish and Wildlife, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Water Development Board, and Texas Parks and Wildlife.

We are writing all the members of Congress who have border districts. We are writing the Governor of the State of Texas as well as all the members of our Texas Legislature that represent the border.

In Mexico, we are writing the Comision Internacional de los Limites y Agua, Comision Nacional del Agua, Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturals, and the governors of the five states within the Rio Grande-Rio Bravo watershed.

Editor’s Note: Article adapted from letter to Congressman Cuellar from Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr., Executive Director of the Rio Grande International Study Center–gm

RESOLUTION NO. 1O-111R

A RESOLUTION BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT STOCKTON JOINING FORCES WITH THE RIO GRANDE INTERNATIONAL STUDY CENTER IN ITS PLEA FOR A MORATORIUM & INTERVENTION TO PREVENT WATER FROM BEING TRANSPORTED, EXPORTED OR PUMPED FROM THE PECOS RIVER AND RIO GRANDE RIVER WATERSHEDS & REQUESTING THAT A HYDROLOGICAL STUDY BE PERFORMED OF THE SUBTERRANEAN WATER FLOWS OF THE EDWARDS-TRINITY AQUIFER TO DETERMINE WHAT UNFORESEEN ADVERSE IMPACTS COULD OCCUR ON THE FLOW OF WATER INTO THE INTERNATIONAL BODY WATER OF WHICH MILLIONS OF INHABITANTS IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY DEPEND ON FOR EXISTENCE.

WHEREAS, The Pecos River is an integral part of the Rio Grande watershed, which is an
international body of water under the 1944 treaty between the United States and Mexico; and

WHEREAS, Downriver from the mouth of the Pecos River in confluence with the Rio Grande is
an internatio
nal comm
unity of some 6-10 million inhabitants that solely rely on the Rio Grande as
a source of existence; residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural usage; and

WHEREAS, Pecos County is confronted with an enterprise that is attempting to extract
approximately 15 billion gallons of water per year from the Pecos watershed under the Texas “rule
of capture”; and

WHEREAS, If successful, that would become a precedent for other water marketing enterprises;
and

WHEREAS, The Rio Grande International Study Center is a non-profit organization with the
stewardship of protecting the Rio Grande watershed; and

WHEREAS, The board of directors of the RGISC has voted unanimously to support Fort
Stockton in attempting to protect the Pecos River watershed; and

WHEREAS, RGISC and the City of Fort Stockton will jointly submit correspondence to the
International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), Environmental Protection Agency,
Comision Internacional de los Lirnites y Agua (CILA), CONAGUA (Comision Nacional del
Agua), SEMARNAT (Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturals), Texas Water
Development Board (TWDB), Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), along with
the four Congressional representatives from Texas bordering Mexico; Congressman Silvestre
Reyes (Dist. 16), Congressman Ciro Rodriguez (Dist. 23), Congressman Henry Cuellar (Dist. 28)
and Congressman Solomon Ortiz (Dist. 27); and

WHEREAS, A request will be sought for a moratorium and an intervention regarding plans to
transfer, export or pump water out of, along with the protection of, the Pecos River and Rio
Grande River watersheds until additional hydrological studies of the subterranean water flows of
the Edwards-Trinity aquifer can be made to determine what unforeseen adverse impacts could
occur on the flow of water into the international body water of which millions of inhabitants in the
international community depend on for existence; and

WHEREAS, Input will also be solicited from the Texas Parks and Wildlife, National Parks
Service, US Fish and Wildlife, as well as other local, state, national and international organizations
and agencies; and

WHEREAS, A joint press conference will be held to inform the media about our request for
intervention; and

– – NOW THEREFFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE FORT STOCKTON CITY COUNCIL,
THAT IT HEREBY ENDORSES:
JOINING FORCES WITH THE RIO GRANDE
INTERNATIONAL STUDY CENTER IN ITS PLEA FOR A
MORATORIUM & INTERVENTION TO PREVENT WATER
FROM BEING TRANSPORTED, EXPORTED OR PUMPED
FROM THE PECOS RIVER AND RIO GRANDE RIVER
WATERSHEDS & REQUESTING THAT A HYDROLOGICAL
STUDY BE PERFORMED OF THE SUBTERRANEAN WATER
FLOWS OF THE EDWARDS-TRINITY AQUIFER TO
DETERMINE WHAT UNFORESEEN ADVERSE IMPACTS
COULD OCCUR ON THE FLOW OF WATER INTO THE
INTKRNATIONAL BODY WATER OF WIllCR MILLIONS OF
INHAB1.TA.””I!TS IN THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
DEPEND ON FOR EXISTENCE.

PASSED AND APPRGYED by the Fort Stockton City Council on this 23rd day of February,
2010.