June 2003

Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC.

SHORT TAKES

Think Twice about New Syria Bills

Representatives Eliot Engel (D-New York) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
(R-Florida) have introduced the "Syria Accountability Act and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act" (HR.1828). Senators Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) have introduced similar legislation called the "Syria Accountability Act" (S.982).

HR.1828 and S.982 are currently circulating in Congress for additional co-sponsors.

The proposed legislation includes a series of findings, views, and statements of policy, all of which are highly critical of Syrian government policies. The proposed legislation seeks to "hold Syria accountable for the serious international security problems it has caused in the Middle East" by requiring the President to determine and report to Congress that Syria has completely stopped support for terrorism, ended its occupation of Lebanon, stopped its development of weapons of mass destruction, and ceased its illegal importation of Iraqi oil and illegal shipments of weapons and other military items to Iraq. The President must also certify that substantial progress has been made in achieving peace agreements between Israel-Syria and Israel-Lebanon. Until the President does so, he is required to prohibit export to Syria of any item on the US munitions list or Commerce control list of dual-use items.

NAAA-ADC, the government affairs affiliate of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, believes that a rush to co-sponsor this legislation could preclude alternatives to addressing American concerns about Syrian policies. This could lead to serious difficulties for American credibility and national security interests in the region.

For more information on this legislation, and contact information for your representatives, contact NAAA-ADC, 4201 Connecticut Ave. NW #300, Washington DC 20008; 202/244-2990; www.naaa-adc.org.

"Color of Violence II" Conference Tapes Now Available

Incite! Women of Color Against Violence is a national organization of radical feminists of color advancing a movement to end violence against women of color and their communities through direct action, critical dialogue, and grassroots organizing.

Tapes from this historic gathering include keynote presentations by Angela Davis and Huanani Kay Trask, plenary sessions with panels of several presenters, and workhops on Heterosexism/Racism, Law Enforcement, Religion/Spirituality, Colonized Bodies of Women of Color, Colonialism and Violence, Challenging the Depoliticization of the Anti-Violence Movement, Organizing Against
Violence in Communities of Color, Media/Cultural Representations of Violence.

To order video and audio tapes, HMR Duplications, 18 Gregory Pl, Oakland CA 94619; 510/482-8732; or Incite!, POB 6861, Minneapolis MN 54406; 415/553-3837; www.incite-national.org

Good News about Food Stamps

The Food Resource Action Network (www.frac.org) announces the April 1 implementation of the 2002 Farm Bill's mandatory restoration of Food Stamp benefits for legal immigrants. The following types of immigrants are qualified if they have been in the US for five years and have been categorized for that time as:

•"Green Card" holders (lawful permanent residents), conditional entrants;

•Refugees, asylees, parolees;

•Cuban/Haitian entrants; Amerasian immigrants;

•Persons granted withholding of deportation/removal; or

•Certain victims of domestic violence or immigrant trafficking.

Over 400,000 new people are eligible as a result. While this is only a small win compared to the need, it's a huge win as far as the climate here in Washington is concerned. We are struggling to get similar provisions for welfare and health care, both of which will be uphill battles.

It should also be noted that all "legal" children, regardless of how long they've been in the country, will become eligible for Food Stamps on October 1, 2003.

To download flyers with this information (in many different languages) for posting in areas where you think they may be helpful, visit <www.frac.org/html/news/fspoutreach.htm>. Also available for downloading from the FRAC web site is the document, "Get Ready for Food Stamp Reauthorization Changes in Your State."

Stop the Attack on the Working Poor

The Bush Administration has asked the IRS to require low-income working people who claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to provide the most exhaustive proof of eligibility ever demanded of any class of taxpayers. The EITC has long had bipartisan support as one of the most effective anti-poverty programs ever; three-quarters of the people who claim it have incomes of $20,000 a year or less).

The process for filing for the EITC is aready quite complex. It is widely acknowledged that many errors made in the filing process are not fraudulent, but are simple mistakes. The IRS says that in 1998, EITC filers who were not entitled to the credit received between $8.5 and $10 billion. In contrast, a Harvard economist's study showed that corporations avoided $54 billion in taxes in 1999 by hiding profits in tax shelters. As military spending increases and politicians pass expensive tax cuts that benefit the wealthy, the needs of poor people are being ignored. This proposed change in the rules claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit will make it too difficult for many needy families to access this needed money.

Send a message to key leaders of the Senate Finance Committee, urging them to hold hearings and stop the IRS from implementing this proposal, by going to the Sojourners magazine web site at www.sojo.net/action.

Rolling Back Fair Labor Victories

Matthew Thomas Harwood currently works in New York for Now with Bill Moyers. This bulletin is from his essay "Rolling Back May Day," published on AlterNet 5/2/03. He can be reached at <mharwood31@comcast.net>º

On March 27, the Bush Administration proposed new rules which could undermine overtime pay guarantees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Under the benign euphemism of "The Family Time Flexibility Act," this legislation proposes that workers be able to decide whether they prefer to be paid in standard time-and-a-half pay or "comp" time after working more than 40 hours-- "comp" time being time off at a later date.

What proponents of the bill fail to explain is that the comp time can only be taken at the employer's discretion and can be postponed for more than a year. This acts as a giant tax cut or an interest-free loan, since employers do not subtract comp time as a monetary value or pay interest on the worker's borrowed time. You don't have to be a cynic to imagine the overwhelming pressure employers will place on workers to select comp time rather than time-and-a-half pay.

If the comp time bill passes, the eight-hour workday protection will be eroded since management can work employees longer for no money at all. if so, the Bush Administration will roll back the gains of 120 years of democratically won social protections in a little more than two years.

The robber barons would be proud.

Letter

Michael Engel, Easthampton, MA

Peacework is often interesting and informative. But lately I find it demoralizing, and I intend to let my subscription lapse. Paul Joseph's article, "The Antiwar Movement Then and Now," provides a basis for explaining this feeling.Ê

Contrary to his assertion, there is no antiwar "movement." Movements have solidarity, organization, leadership, direction. The left once had these qualities, until they became dirty words after the 1960s. Antiwar activism in America today, however, consists of thousands of individuals doing their own thing, in small groups, separately. Certainly lots of positive accomplishments have resulted. But taken as a whole, in the face of a militaristic radical right that knows where it's going and works together to get there, it amounts to a well-intentioned spinning of wheels.

For a brief moment before the war, it seemed like that might change. I would check out the Moveon.org website and see messages of peace from all over the world, pictures of demonstrations on every continent, people of all ages and races mobilized against war. But this "movement" left no organizational trace; and the media has done its best to erase its memory.

I have tremendous respect for those who are devoting their lives to the cause of peace. I see a lot of possibilities in the younger generation. But until we take back what the radical right has stolen from the radical left--a spirit of unity, leadership role models, a sense of direction, genuine outreach to new constituencies, and real roots in local communities--there will be no lasting progress in the fight against militarism, imperialism, and oppression.

Previous Article    Next Article