contributions

’Cooks and drivers were working as interrogators’
Private contractor lifts the lid on systematic failures at Abu Ghraib jail
Julian Borger in Washington Friday May 7, 2004 The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1211374,00.html
Many of the prisoners abused at the Abu Ghraib prison were innocent Iraqis, picked up at random by US troops and incarcerated by underqualified intelligence officers, a former US interrogator from the jail told the Guardian. Torin Nelson, who (…)

by John Pietaro Befittingly, just as the workers’ commemoration of May Day winds down, Pete Seeger celebrates another birthday. Perhaps the only complaint is that Pete, the personificartion of radical politics in music, was not born but two days earlier! Since 1940, Pete Seeger has been a tireless performer of the protest song, focusing his strongest efforts on that music which was created by, for and about, the so-called common man. The product (…)

Wages don’t figure in rebound As profits soar, employees say good times haven’t reached them By Charles Stein, Globe Staff For Caterpillar Inc., times could hardly be better. Like much of corporate America, the Peoria, Ill., maker of construction equipment is benefiting from a surprisingly powerful economic rebound. Two weeks ago, the company reported a 200 percent increase in first- quarter profits and predicted profits for the rest of the year would be strong, as well. Chairman (…)

For More Information: Jeff Miller or Candice Johnson CWA Communications, 202-434-1168 www.cwa-union.org/sbc. WASHINGTON,D.C. - Members of the Communications Workers of America working at SBC Communications voted overwhelmingly to give CWA leaders authorization to call a strike if they deem it necessary. Contract negotiations currently are underway on behalf of 100,000 CWA-represented workers at SBC. The talks cover SBC operations in 13 states: Connecticut, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, (…)

By James S. Granelli With a Friday strike deadline looming, SBC Communications Inc. and the union for 100,000 of the telephone company’s workers - including 30,000 in California - resume formal contract talks today still far apart on nagging issues of healthcare benefits and job security. Negotiators for SBC and the Communications Workers of America are scheduled to meet with a federal mediator in Washington after a week’s break. The two sides earlier reached a key agreement on (…)

New Prison Images Emerge Graphic Photos May Be More Evidence of Abuse
By Christian Davenport "Washington Post"
The collection of photographs begins like a travelogue from Iraq. Here are U.S. soldiers posing in front of a mosque. Here is a soldier riding a camel in the desert. And then: a soldier holding a leash tied around a man’s neck in an Iraqi prison. He is naked, grimacing and lying on the floor. Mixed in with more than 1,000 digital pictures obtained by The Washington Post (…)

MORE photos of Iraqi prisoners being abused by their US jailers have turned up
among 1000 digital images passed among US military police who served at the Abu
Ghraib prison, The Washington Post reports.
The pictures show similar acts of abuse and humiliation that have been seen around
the world and touched off a major scandal that has led to investigations and
expressions of disgust and disappointment by top US military and political leaders. .../... (AFP)
06.05.2004
Collective (…)

The past didn’t go anywhere, did it? It’s right here, right now… Time is an enormous long river and I’m standing in it, just as you’re standing in it. My elders were the tributaries and everything they thought, and every struggle they went through, and everything they gave their lives to, and every song they created, and every poem that they laid down flows down to me…Utah Phillips
by Sandra Cuffe
Nestled in the back of a pickup truck on the way to El Progreso, Yoro, in northwestern (…)

by Michael Moore
Friends,
I would have hoped by now that I would be able to put my work out to the public without having to experience the profound censorship obstacles I often seem to encounter.
Yesterday I was told that Disney, the studio that owns Miramax, has officially decided to prohibit our producer, Miramax, from distributing my new film, "Fahrenheit 9/11." The reason? According to today’s (May 5) New York Times, it might "endanger" millions of dollars of tax breaks Disney (…)

Please read here: Disney Has Blocked the Distribution of My New Film... by Michael Moore
By JIM RUTENBERG
WASHINGTON, The Walt Disney Company is blocking its Miramax division from distributing a new documentary by Michael Moore that harshly criticizes President Bush, executives at both Disney and Miramax said Tuesday.
The film, "Fahrenheit 911," links Mr. Bush and prominent Saudis - including the family of Osama bin Laden - and criticizes Mr. Bush’s actions before and after the Sept. (…)