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Push Back Regressive Drug Laws
By Peter Rothberg
In her latest post, my boss Katrina vanden Heuvel highlights efforts to have New York State's draconian Rockefeller drug laws taken off the books. Tomorrow, March 10, thousands of people are expected to convene in Albany for the Drop the Rock Advocacy Day to convince lawmakers to enact repeal.
Here's how you can help:
There's still time to catch a bus to Albany to join the action.
(18) CommentsMarch 9, 2009
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Foodies Address the Slavery Issue
By Peter Rothberg
At The Nation we've tried to keep up on the good work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an organization comprised chiefly of Latino, Haitian and Mayan Indian immigrants working in Immokalee, Florida as tomato pickers.
Founded in 1993 as a "community-based worker organization" the organization has won inspiring victories, achieved international notoriety and established fruitful collaborations with an array of grassroots groups, notably the Student-Farmworker Alliance.
CIW's most well-known triumph came in 2005 after a four-year boycott that included a 10-day hunger strike and two cross-country "Taco Bell Truth Tours" when Yum! Brands -- the corporation that owns Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Long John Silver's -- agreed to all the CIW's demands, most importantly a one penny per pound increase in the wages of tomato pickers and worker collaboration on the drafting and enforcement of a code of conduct.
(47) CommentsMarch 4, 2009
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The Amendment Hustle
By Peter Rothberg
Greg Kaufmann, who has been blogging about the DC voting rights legislation, writes that events have reached a critical stage and Nation readers can play a crucial role.
Is there anything that gets Republicans more fired up than cutting taxes and services, and denying 600,000 DC citizens the right to a voting Representative in the House?
As I indicated in my last post, GOP Senators have responded to the historic 62 votes that brought the DC Voting Rights bill to the floor by offering about five poison pill amendments -- including barring the Fairness Doctrine, handing DC off to Maryland, and allowing people to carry concealed weapons. But it's the amendment to repeal local gun control laws that could ultimately kill this bill if it's passed.
(114) CommentsFebruary 26, 2009
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End Mountaintop Removal
By Peter Rothberg
Thanks to author and activist Jeff Biggers for alerting me to a powerful appeal made recently to President Obama to immediately halt mountaintop removal, a radical form of coal mining in which entire mountains are literally blown up, devastating hundreds of square miles of Appalachia; polluting the headwaters of rivers that provide drinking water to millions of Americans; and destroying a distinctly American culture that has endured for generations.
Bo Webb, a Vietnam veteran and resident of the Coal River Mountain region in West Virginia, penned his urgent message to Obama from his family's homeplace, which dates back to the 1820s and is being rattled by explosives from mountaintop removal operators today. The letter bears witness to the terror of mountaintop removal on American citizens.
Here's an excerpt:
(42) CommentsFebruary 24, 2009
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Taking a Stand on Global Warming
By Peter Rothberg
This is Dr. James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, calling on Americans to join him on March 2nd at the Capitol Power Plant in what is expected to be a massive non-violent protest demanding action on global warming.
A Call to Action on Global Warming from Dr. James Hansen from Greenpeace USA on Vimeo.Some 2,000 people from across the country are expected to join Dr. Hansen at Congress's own coal-fired power plant in Southeast Washington, DC -- maybe many more if the expected crowd of 10,000 at the Power Shift conference in DC ending the day before gets duly fired up. Of all the fossil fuels, coal is the single biggest contributor to global warming. Burning coal cuts short at least 24,000 lives in the US annually, inflicts catastrophic damage to the landscape and water supplies, and jeopardizes the lives of miners. Furthermore, the coal ash spill in Tennessee makes it clear that there is no adequate means of safely storing coal combustion waste.
(171) CommentsFebruary 19, 2009
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Power Shift 09
By Peter Rothberg
As the battle to pass the stimulus bill demonstrates, real change will not come easily. And it won't come at all without popular pressure pushing the White House and Congress on numerous fronts.
There are currently countless efforts among progressive groups to harness the energy of young people engaged by politics during the last election. At StudentNation, Kristina Rizga has been spearheading a new series of activist profiles looking at different issues young activists are taking on. Few issues have engaged young people more than saving the planet and few green organizations have been more successful at engaging young people than the Energy Action Coalition, the group behind the PowerShift conferences.
In two weeks Power Shift '09 will bring more than 10,000 youth leaders to Washington DC to get inspired, trained, networked and to lobby their members of Congress.
(55) CommentsFebruary 13, 2009
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Fighting for Our Homes
By Peter Rothberg
The Senate approved an $838 billion economic rescue plan today, setting the stage for tough haggling this week over the final package of tax cuts and spending aimed at averting a deeper recession. President Obama wants the Democratic-controlled Congress to deliver a package to his desk by this weekend, but the Senate and House of Representatives must first reconcile differences between their two bills.
The process got a little murkier this afternoon when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner rolled out his controversial Financial Stabilization Plan which calls for an additional $50 billion to help dam up the flood of foreclosures drowning our economy.
How the eight million people currently at risk of losing their homes in the still-metastasizing foreclosure crisis will fare if the bill passes remains to be seen. In order to keep their voice in the conversation, our friends at Brave New Foundation have launched a new campaign, Fighting for Our Homes with an innovative website that enables anyone affected by the housing crisis to tell their tale in their own words, either by recording it on camera or writing it down and submitting it with a photo of the house in jeopardy.
(50) CommentsFebruary 10, 2009
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Hilda Solis Under Fire
By Peter Rothberg
Yesterday my friend and colleague Ari Berman sent me a link to an Atlantic post by Marc Ambinder detailing GOP plans to hold up the confirmation of Labor Secretary-designate Hilda Solis, probably President Obama's most progressive cabinet pick.
Then, today I received a mailing from the Center for American Progress elaborating on efforts by Senate Republicans to block the widely praised US representative from California for her progressive views supporting American workers. "This is just harassment," the report quotes Scott Lilly, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. "I haven't seen anything that has been raised that looks like a truly substantive question about whether President Obama should have her serve him as labor secretary."
The real problem for her opponents is that under Solis, the Department of Labor would once again defend the rights of workers after eight years of repealing, reducing and blatantly ignoring workplace laws and regulations. As a state senator, Solis authored the first environmental justice law in the nation, and she has since said she is committed to creating green jobs. She also told the Senate that she would address the retirement security crisis; ensure that workplaces are safe, healthy, and fair; and protect workers from job discrimination.
(34) CommentsFebruary 5, 2009
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The Right is Winning Today
By Peter Rothberg
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, currently being debated in the Senate, was passed last week by the House of Representatives. If enacted, the economic recovery plan will be one of the biggest and boldest pieces of progressive legislation in the past forty years.
Bernie Horn has summarized some of the highlights at OurFuture.org:
**$142 billion for a middle-class tax cut
(73) Comments
**$47 billion to extend unemployment benefits
**$16 billion to expand food stamps
**$17 billion in one-time payments to low-income Americans
**$26 billion to expand access to health care
**$87 billion to help states pay for Medicaid
**$24 billion to modernized health information technology
**$46 billion to fix bridges and roads
**$80 billion to improve public education
**$19 billion for school construction
**$14 billion to make college more affordable
**$32 billion for clean energyFebruary 3, 2009
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CIW to Crist: End Slavery
By Peter Rothberg
At The Nation we've written a lot about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. The CIW is a worker's organization comprised chiefly of Latino, Haitian and Mayan Indian immigrants who work in Immokalee, Florida, largely as tomato pickers.
Founded in 1993 as a "community-based worker organization" by a small group of discontented fruit pickers in low-wage agricultural jobs throughout Florida, the organization has won unexpected victories, achieved international notoriety and established fruitful collaborations with an array of grassroots groups, notably the Student-Farmworker Alliance.
Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel has followed the organization closely with blog posts like this, this and this.
(28) CommentsJanuary 27, 2009
Peter Rothberg
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