Venezuela’s Bolivarian government defends against rightist violence

By Tom Whitney

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government is facing its biggest challenge since his electoral victory on April 14, 2013 – still unrecognized by the U.S. government. Nationwide street protests coinciding with Venezuela’s “Youth Day” turned violent on February 10. 2014. Disruptions continued and two days later in Caracas swarms of masked demonstrators taunted police, ringed public buildings, destroyed official vehicles, and set fires. Gunfire left three people dead and over 70 wounded. Dozens were imprisoned.

Serious confrontations erupted in Tachira and Merida states, well known for harboring anti-government paramilitaries from nearby Colombia. Official spokespersons characterized the killings of two victims in Caracas with single shots from one gun as assassinations and, as such, provocations.

Disturbances emerging immediately after Maduro’s slim election victory caused 11 deaths. Uprisings then and now, observers say, followed a single script, that of casting Venezuela’s Bolivarian government as precarious, now because charismatic leader Hugo Chavez, who preceded Maduro, is gone. Powerbrokers within Venezuela’s still thriving capitalist sector aim at destabilization. The current turmoil has parallels with the failed, U.S. supported, anti-Chavez coup in 2002.

Washington officials, mindful of Monroe Doctrine traditions of dominating a continent, have little enthusiasm for the Bolivarian Revolution Maduro now heads. It is anti-imperialist; socialist; and, for the region, integrationist. And Venezuela has oil.

With student protesters and others in the streets, millions of U.S. dollars delivered over the past decade to groups aligned with Venezuela’s traditional centers of power and influence seem to be bearing fruit. The National Education for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for International Development served as conduits for funding, much of it directed at organizing students in private universities

Intermittently during the Chavez era and since, those students figured prominently in protests against inflation and shortages. Their demonstrations are big news for 85 percent of national media that is privately owned. Reports have surfaced that behind the scenes importers manipulate currencies and distributors hoard commodities.

Venezuela’s Unified Socialist Party, led by Maduro, made big gains in municipal elections on December 8, 2013. Opposition strategists took the message that elections aren’t helpful in their project of ousting the Bolivarians. Consequently, protesters’ rhetoric within weeks turned to “regime change.” Then violent confrontations materialized, spreading widely during the week of February 10. Whether thugs involved are students or infiltrators is unclear, but some admitted to payoffs.

The wealthy Henrique Capriles, the right wing presidential candidate in elections won by Maduro, condemned the violence. One effect of his dividing opposition ranks was to spotlight veteran hardliners in charge of the current protests, two in particular.

National Assembly deputy Maria Corina Machado, born into wealth, urged protesters to remain in the streets, blaming the government for the killings. She faced allegations of involvement last year in another destabilizing plot. Machado once visited the office of President George W. Bush in connection with her leadership of the U.S. funded Sumate group, notable for propelling the anti-Chavez referendum of 2004. She became a “Yale World Fellow,” according to Yale, partly because “Sumate’s network of volunteers grew to include more than 30,000 members from all over Venezuela.” Machado sent two sons to Yale, alma mater of both Bush presidents. In 2002 she signed a document expressing support for the coup government briefly in power then.

Leopoldo López, born into wealth, heads the rightist Popular Will Party. Facing an arrest warrant as intellectual author of the February 12 disturbances, López tried unsuccessfully to exit Venzuela. He graduated from Kenyon College in Ohio, a nursery for future CIA operatives, says Canadian – Cuban political writer Jean-Guy Allard. He attended Harvard’s Kennedy School. Working for the International Republican Institute in 2002 he led the coup plotters’ march on the presidential residence.

But now is not 2002: dissident military and police are not involved, security forces control the streets, and by the week’s end anti-government protests were losing steam. Government supporters marched by the thousands in Caracas on February 15.

The night before, President Maduro presented a multi-faceted program outlining plans for “a secure country;” demobilization of armed gangs; a “Movement for Peace and Living Together” in each state; nationwide sport, cultural, and musical tours; a “new communications (meaning TV) culture;” “maximum social discipline” in prisons; and action against “drug traffickers and paramilitaries entering the country.”

While the United Nations, Organization of American States, and European Union denounced violence and called for dialogue, the U.S. State Department condemned “weakening of democratic institutions in Venezuela.” U.S. Senator Marco Rubio accused the Maduro government of creating “an unprecedented wave of repression.” Secretary of State Kerry (Yale, 1966) on February 15 threatened “serious negative consequences” should Venezuela’s government succeed in arresting Lopez. That government expelled three U.S. Embassy officials the next day for reaching out to university students.

Foreign Minister Elías Jaua told reporters on February 17 that his government “confronts a fascist attack at the hands of groups trained specifically to cause violence”

=========================

Powerful interests mobilize to end U.S. anti-Cuban blockade

By Tom Whitney

The U.S. economic blockade of Cuba, cruel and reviled across the globe, has persisted for as long as the period between the U.S. Civil War and World War I. But it may not last forever. Just recently, stirrings of disenchantment among powerful forces have cropped up nationally and in Florida, epicenter of Cuban émigré opposition to Cuba’s revolutionary government.

On February 11 the Atlantic Council released its poll on attitudes toward the blockade expressed during January. The Council surveyed 1000 people nationwide plus 617 Florida residents and 525 Latinos, all by telephone. The report became a main focus of news stories on blockade dissent appearing simultaneously.

Of those surveyed nationally, 56 percent – Latinos, 62 percent – want normalization of relations, 61 percent oppose travel restrictions, 62 percent OK U.S. business dealings with Cuba, and 61 percent oppose Cuba being designated a terrorist nation. Among Floridians offering opinions, 63 percent call for normal relations and 67 percent oppose both travel restrictions and the terrorist label. And 52 percent of Republicans want normalization, as do 64 percent of Miami-Dade County residents in Florida.

“The majority of Americans on both sides of the aisle are ready for a policy shift,” concludes the Atlantic Council. “Most surprisingly, Floridians are even more supportive …This is a key change from the past.” And “Economic arguments prove to be most convincing for normalization.”

The splash from this survey report coincided with other ripples. The Washington Post interviewed Cuban exile Alfonso Fanjul, “one of the principal funders of the U.S. anti-Castro movement” and someone, who with his brother, “amass[ed] one of North America’s great fortunes.” Fanjul discussed trips to Cuba in 2012 and 2013.

“I’d like to see our family back in Cuba,” he said, and “if there’s an arrangement within Cuba and the United States, and legally it can be done and there’s a proper framework set up and in place, then we will look at that possibility.” Cuban American businessman Paul Cejas traveled with Fanjul: “The embargo is really an embargo against America ourselves, because Americans cannot do business with Cuba, where there are incredible opportunities for growth.”

Ex-Florida governor and former blockade apologist Charlie Crist, Democratic candidate to be Florida’s next governor, announced a change of heart. Lifting the blockade, he said, “could help the Florida economy, creating more jobs in the state and allowing Florida businesses to sell goods and services to an island that has been largely closed to most commerce with the United States for more than 50 years.

On February 10 the Miami Herald published Senators Patrick Leahy’s (D-VT) and Jeff Flake’s (R-AZ) op-ed piece “Time for a new Policy on Cuba.” Citing survey results a day before their release, they note that, “A majority of Americans, including Cuban-Americans, wants to change course,” and “so do we.”

While dismissing Cuba as repressive and failing economically, the senators argue that “Trade with Latin America is the fastest growing part of our international commerce… Rather than isolate Cuba with outdated policies, we have isolated ourselves …Current policy boxes U.S. entrepreneurs and companies out of taking part in any of this burgeoning Cuban private sector.”

Remarkably, news in November, 2013 that President Obama was questioning U.S. Cuban policies quickly became old news. At a Miami political fundraiser he had suggested that “in the age of the Internet, Google and world travel,” old policies “don’t make sense.”

This time, news of the survey triggered real discussion even though, significantly, its findings were not new. In fact, annual Gallup polling on Cuba since 1999 has consistently demonstrated nationwide majorities in favor of “re-establishing U.S. diplomatic relations” and ending the blockade. Other surveys yielded similar results. A Florida International University opinion poll in 2008 showed that “a majority of Cuban-Americans now favor ending the … economic embargo and restoring diplomatic relations” with Cuba, 55 percent and 65 percent, respectively.

In releasing its report, the Atlantic Council attached a remarkably forthright advocacy statement to its recitation of data. The report may be useful for having updated long established trends, but why did it command so much attention?

The Council is no bit player in establishment circles. Former Secretaries of State Dean Acheson and Christian Herter founded it in 1961 as a support mechanism for NATO. It maintains close ties with prominent U.S. and European NGO’s involved with diplomatic and security issues. Weapons manufacturers are corporate members. Directors, some honorary, include diplomatic, defense, and intelligence honchos like Henry Kissinger, James Schlesinger, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, George Shultz, Wesley Clark, Michael Hayden, and Robert Gates.

Perhaps now, with movers and shakers taking things in hand, change really is on the way. But a thorny detail may need attending to: Cuban leaders are unlikely to discuss big changes with U.S. leaders without, first, the Cuban Five political prisoners being sent home. That’s the opinion of Stephen Kimber, author of the only English language book (“What Lies across the Water”) on the case of the Five.

Some of the recent stories on changed attitudes allude to Cuban imprisonment of U.S. contractor Alan Gross – he violated Cuban laws – as accounting for U.S. intransigence on the blockade. The scenario thus comes into view, maybe, of an exchange of prisoners ushering in talks on re-establishing relations.

=====================================

CELAC Summit in Cuba reflects region’s altered power dynamics

By Tom Whitney

The II Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) opened in Cuba on January 28, 2014, birthday of Cuban national hero and Latin American integrationist Jose Marti. The 33 heads of states on hand represented all Western Hemisphere nations south of the Rio Grande River, the region Marti called “Our America.”

United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon and José Miguel Insulza, secretary general of the Organization of American States, attended as guests. The OAS, loyal to U.S. dictates, ejected revolutionary Cuba from its membership in 1963. By serving as CELAC president pro tem during 2013 and hosting this summit, Cuba made clear its return to the community of nations.

Cuban President Raul Castro opened the Summit and indirectly took note of OAS’ altered status in the region: “Step by step we are creating a [CELAC] that is currently recognized in the world as the legitimate representative of the interests of Latin America and the Caribbean.” CELAC has a “heritage of two hundred years of struggle for independence.” Its “ultimate goal” is “development of a spirit of greater unity amid diversity.”

Castro called for “creation of a common political space … where we can exploit our resources in a sovereign way and for our common wellbeing and utilize our scientific and technical knowledge in the interest of the progress of our peoples; where we can assert undeniable principles such as self-determination, sovereignty and sovereign equality of states.”

Observing that Latin America and the Caribbean is the “is the most unequal region in the planet,” he lamented the fact that the region’s overall 28.2 percent poverty rate co-exists with concentration of 32 percent of all income in the hands of 10 percent of the population. He detailed children’s lack of schooling and health care. Castro highlighted the region’s abundance of natural resources, fertile land, and water, pointing out that “all that wealth should become the driving force to eradicate inequalities.”

Castro had asked for a minute of silence in honor of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez who convened the founding CELAC congress in Caracas in 2011. Chile hosted the first summit in early 2013 after a term as president pro tem. Costa Rica becomes CELAC president following this summit. Responsibility for ongoing CELAC affairs rests with a committee comprising the past, current, and upcoming CELAC presidents and a Caribbean-area president. Foreign ministers and their staffs perform administration.

At its conclusion on January 29, the CELAC Summit declared the region a “zone of peace” subject to international law and principles of the United Nations Charter. Member states vowed to “banish forever the use of force and to seek a peaceful solution to controversies,” also “to respect the inalienable right of each state to choose its economic, political, social and cultural system.” Interference in the internal affairs of another country is off limits, as are nuclear weapons.

The Summit issued a far-reaching, 83-point “Declaration of Havana.” The document reviews purposes and precedents and ratifies measures supporting the sovereignty of states, food sovereignty, sustainable and coordinated regional development, and protection of civil society and private institutions. It calls for solutions to climate change, poverty and hunger, drug addiction, and flawed United Nations governance. CELAC backs Haiti reconstruction, Puerto Rican independence, streamlined foreign investment systems, and Great Britain’s return of the Malvinas Islands to Argentina, The organization seeks rights for indigenous people and migrants and demands that the U. S. economic blockade of Cuba stop.

The U.S. government, on the outside, was not entirely silent. Diplomat Conrad Tribble tweeted from the U. S. Interests section in Havana asking, “Is any journalist here for CelacCuba going to look for independent voices on Cuba’s reality? It would be worth the trouble.”

The Continental Forum for Promotion of Democracy, a “counter summit,” took place at Florida International University on January 25. Cuban exiles in the United States and opposition politicians and publicists from Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua attended. Journalist Jean-Guy Allard claims the group organizing the event, the Buenos Aires – based Center for Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL), has CIA ties and is financed by the International Republican Institute. CADAL staged a Summit – related forum in Havana on January 28 joined by leaders of domestic opposition groups.

Editorializing, Mexico’s La Jornada news service judged that “CELAC’s success in pulling off its summit shows, essentially, a political – diplomatic turn-over in the continent…But governments have to work to consolidate this new deliberative political body for Latin America and the Caribbean and strengthen and maintain it, despite natural disagreements cropping up between governments and predictable attempts by U. S. diplomacy to distort this forum.”

By Val

John Stanford

Since I moved to San Antonio in 1993, I have seen John “Juancho” Stanford at nearly every meeting, march, trial or activity for peace and justice issues (and although I do not attend all of these, I know he did attend nearly all of them.) But after 9/11 I came to know him better. Along with other activists, we met at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center to brainstorm ways of responding to the 9/11 attacks and to call for a response to the attacks that emphasized international justice processes and other peaceful techniques. This was in the week following the attacks. We started a peace vigil outside the San Fernando Cathedral on Sept 24, two weeks after the attacks. (The weekly vigils were later moved to Thursdays, and after the streets around Main Plaza were closed, to the corner of S. Flores and Commerce.)

Many people came and went to the vigils, but John was the mainstay, out in all sorts of weather, and every week almost without fail—including on Thanksgiving and other holidays that happened to fall on vigil days. Because my work takes me away from San Antonio, I wasn’t nearly as faithful as he was. I’d estimate that our pictures were taken by hundreds of people (mostly tourists, I suppose—and perhaps police or other agents) and we received many “Honks for Peace”, more and more as time went by. John was often pleased by the response, and said we were getting more positive reactions each week. He was always full of news and comments about local and national peace and justice events, always had a smile for everyone, even hecklers, although he would, if given a chance, explain why peace is the only solution to violence.

I also remember his accounts of his work on the Martin Luther King Jr. March Commission. Not only did he always march but he worked hard with folks on the East side to have Dr. King’s legacy of nonviolence and opposition to war remembered in the events. On the year the Commission decided to invite the Air Force to flyover the event, he tried to influence it not to “honor” Dr. King in this way. While some members of the Commission agreed with him, he did not prevail. That was one of the years when we wore tee-shirts with a drawing of Dr. King standing in front of a photo of Gandhi, with the quote, “The choice today is not between violence and nonviolence, but between nonviolence and non-existence.”

I wrote this last year from Latin America (Barranquilla, Colombia) where I work with peacebuilding programs in four countries. He was a great model, active to the last, unflinching, and through it all gentle and kind. I’ll miss him a lot.

– from Zoltan Zigedy is available at:
http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

“The tenacity of the Yankees… is a result of their theoretical backwardness and their Anglo-Saxon contempt for all theory. They are punished for this by a superstitious belief in every philosophical and economic absurdity, by religious sectarianism, and by idiotic economic experiments, out of which, however, certain bourgeois cliques profit.” Frederich Engels, letter to Sorge, London, January 6, 1892. Translation by Leonard E. Mins (1938)

One hundred and twenty-two years later, the Yankees remain bereft of theory while clinging to every outlandish scheme promising to curtail the appetite of an insatiable capitalist system. Churning on without interruption, capitalism generates greater and greater wealth for its masters while devouring everyone else in its wake. From regulatory reform to alternative life styles, from tax policies to cooperative endeavors, self-proclaimed opponents of this rapacious economic behemoth have announced newly contrived exits from its destructive path. While “…people [in the US] must become conscious of their own social interests by making blunder upon blunder…” as Engels put it in another letter to his US friend Frederich Sorge, the contented capitalists merrily continue profiting.

Engels’ brutal indictment of the North American allergy to theory and the affinity for unfocussed activism was tempered by an optimism based more upon hope than reality: “The movement itself will go through many and disagreeable phases, disagreeable particularly for those who live in the country and have to suffer them. But I am firmly convinced that things are now going ahead over there… notwithstanding the fact that the Americans will learn almost exclusively in practice for the time being, and not so much from theory.”

That conviction may well seem misplaced today as many of those who claim opposition to capitalism continue to decry theory and invest instead in utopian schemes and isolate burning issues from a general critique of capitalism and its social policies.

Nothing illustrates the Engels’ diagnosis more than the current public discussion of inequality and poverty. It is tempting to call the new-found interest a fad or fashion, since it seems to spring from nothing more than a sitting President’s alarm. But the present-day rage to address economic inequality is far more cynical. With interim national elections on the horizon and a competitive Presidential race on its heels, Democratic Party leaders served notice on the lame-duck President that it is time again to rouse the Party base, the labor unions, the progressive single-issue organizations, internet lefties, and the deep-pockets social liberals. Hence, despite the fact that inequality and poverty are neither newly discovered nor newly arrived, the alarm goes up: inequality is with us! Poverty is on the rise!

It is true, of course. Only a few outliers would deny that income and wealth growth for most people in the US have been stagnant or declining since some time in the 1970s (Even right-wing ideologue, Representative Paul Ryan, concedes that there are 47 million US citizens living in poverty). Health care has been in crisis, with millions left without any significant health options and untold numbers dying prematurely. The education system, like the physical infrastructure, is underfunded and crumbling….

To read the rest of the article, please visit: http://zzs-blg.blogspot.com/

In addition to the club number (832)390-7661, there is a temporary number that you can call for information about the Houston Communist Party. The new temporary number is (713)380-5172. Give us a call if you have questions or would like more information. Or you can send an e-mail to PHill1917@comcast.net .

5 February 2014

Feb. 5-6, 2014, Barcelona, Espana

Dear Friends

The idea of gathering pensioner and retiree workers in an International Trade Union is no longer a dream, it is a purpose that has come true with the will of all of you, the WFTU and all the trade unions who supported this initiative, On behalf of WFTU secretariat we thank the support of the trade union organizations in Barcelona, especially CSU, which facilitate the conditions to celebrate this event.

Today, more than ever, unity is very necessary, the struggle against austerity measures, neoliberal policies, against capitalism and imperialism becomes stronger, the millions of people who suffer because of these measures and policies are increasing, and only a minority is benefited by them.

The world population is getting old rapidly and the workers arriving at retirement age, added to the retirees already, are a very important part in society today.

Given the current crisis, the measures being taken by capitalist governments in many countries are affecting dramatically retirees and pensioners and they are losing their rights, rights won through struggles, which many of you were protagonists, so the WFTU has committed to organize and unite you to defend together what you have earned during hard battles and will enjoy decent pensions and conditions to live properly.

The World Federation of Trade Unions was founded in 1945 in Paris after World War II because of the need to unite the workers after the defeat of fascism. Despite some opposition pressures WFTU imposed its condition as class oriented, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, anti-colonialist, unitary and democratic organization, principles that it has remained until today, fighting alongside the working class.

Many of you witnessed the glory days of the working class in the socialist stage, especially in Europe, the international trade union movement was strengthened with the strength and struggle of the WFTU and many victories and rights were achieved by workers worldwide.

After the collapsed of the socialist bloc the FSM was weakened, many of their European organizations chose to join the former ICFTU, now ITUC, and others decided to remain independent, but all the ones who remained loyal to their principles sustained the commitment and continued fighting side by side with the workers.

Today we can say that, facing the dramatic global economic situation, the attacks to the class oriented trade union movement, the anti trade union and anti workers measures applied by many capitalist governments, WFTU has increased its actions, after the XV Congress in Havana in 2006, the WFTU began a new stage of recovery, leadership and strengthening, results demonstrated in the XVI Congress in Athens 2011 and in every action made till today.

Currently we have 86 million members in 120 countries around the world, and you will expand that number, we are proud to count with your force, your experience and your irrevocable desire to continue the defense of your rights as retirees, this strengthen WFTU even more.

WFTU has 9 Brach International Trade Unions: Food, Hotel and Tourism, Metal and Mining, Public Administration, Education, Banking, Construction and Transportation and this TUI of Pensioners and Jubilees would be the 10th.

The WFTU work is getting stronger with the actions that develop the 6 regional offices in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Francophone Africa, Anglophone Africa, the Middle East and with the Sub regional Offices in North America, Middle East, Africa and Asia and it has consultative status at the UN, ILO, UNESCO and FAO.

In these more than 60 years it has accompanied the workers, migrants, unemployed, youths, women, retirees and landless in the struggle for full employment, for living wages, against racism, xenophobia, for gender equality, for the right of freedom of association, for the right to strike, for decent pensions and for living as human beings.

We condemn the aggression and imperialist wars that destroy our countries and people with the loss of innocent lives, threatening to turn the world into a holocaust caused by a nuclear war, we are at the side of Syrian workers and the Palestinian people in their just struggle, with the people of Venezuela and its revolutionary process, we fight together with the Cuban people for lifting of the unjust U.S. blockade imposed to Cuba for more than 50 years ago and for the release of the 5 Cuban prisoners in U.S. prisons for fighting against terrorism, we fight together with the African people, we are at the side of all oppressed people and workers of the world.

We accompany you, who have given much of your lives to work and have faced great battles for your rights as workers, leaving a proud legacy to new and future generations, so we must continue this struggle, your effort has not been in vain, this conference is the continuation of that effort and we are here to defend our achievements.

Retirees are already part of the WFTU family, we are sure you will play a very active role within the TUI, you multiply the actions from your positions and will maintain the TUI functioning permanently, we cannot constitute this UIS and that everything stays at a conference, we should be able to keep it alive and very active.

Retirees are starting a new phase of their life, which they should live it fully, without gaps, without injustice, without harassment.

The austerity measures, the neoliberal policies, capitalist governments and multinationals have endeavored to shed their obligations to you, to recover themselves from the crisis -created by themselves-, at the expense of pensions cuts, eviction of houses, raising prices of medicines, food, water and services such as electricity, gas and transport, How it is possible to cover all those needs with miserable pensions? How it is possible to live a healthy life without having access to the most elementary basic needs, without social security?

Especially in Europe workers and retirees’ future is very uncertain, countries like Spain, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Portugal, France, among others, suffer the constant cuts in pensions, protests by many retirees and pensioners in these countries prove it.

The constitution of this TUI is an expression of the continuity of our struggle, it is an expression of the support of the WFTU and all its affiliated workers to retirees, it is an expression of the strength of our organization against capitalism, imperialism and all those policies that are aimed to exterminate the rich and glorious history of the class oriented trade union movement, of the workers who have built with their effort our society and that, at the end of their working life deserve the recognition for their contribution to the economic development of our countries.

This TUI will become the bastion of the struggle of retirees in the world, accompanied in every action by the WFTU, by the workers and class oriented trade unions, never the militant and solidarity support of each one of us will be missing with the certainty that with this unit we will achieve the victory.

The WFTU calls for unity in the struggle, only then we can defeat capitalism and start the path to regain socialism, only system that defends and respects the real rights of humans.

I wish, on behalf of WFTU, success in this historic event, in the rich discussions that will take place in these two days of meetings and in the actions and agreements emanating from this conference, with the confidence that we always be at your side, supporting you in the struggles that at the end will become in or victories.

Thank you very much.

Check out this link:

http://www.wftucentral.org/?p=7198&language=en

“The Eastern Panhandle Central Labor Council is proud to support HR 676,”
said Ken Collinson, President. “We believe that health care is a right,
not a privilege, and we do everything that we can to support single payer.
We are close to DC so we go to rallies whenever they are called.”

The Eastern Panhandle CLC represents workers in the seven counties in
eastern West Virginia and is headquartered in Martinsburg. Collinson is
also the President of United Auto Workers Local 1590.

The Eastern Panhandle CLC is the 610th labor organization to endorse HR
676, Expanded and Improved Medicare for All, sponsored by Congressman John
Conyers. At the end of January, Representative Gloria Negrete McLeod
(CA-35) signed on to HR 676, bringing the total of cosponsors in the
House, including Conyers, to 55.

“When people do not have health care, it is unimaginable. An injury to
one is an injury to all—this is what we feel in our hearts,” said
Collinson.

The labor council is taking further action to promote public support for
single payer by joining with the Eastern Panhandle chapters of Physicians
for a National Health Program and Healthcare-NOW! and the Jefferson County
NAACP Branch, the League of Women Voters of Jefferson County, and Shepherd
University Lifelong Learning Program to bring a one hour, one man play
featuring actor Michael Milligan to six West Virginia cities.

The play is Mercy Killers and admission is free. The schedule is below:

Friday, March 28, 7:00 PM, Ice House, 138 Independence St. Berkeley Springs

Saturday, March 29, 1:30 PM, Fisherman’s Hall, 312 South West St. Charles
Town

Sunday, March 30, 2:00 PM, Opera House, 131 W. German St. Shepherdstown

Monday, March 31, 7:00 PM, Calvary Church, 220 W. Burke St. Martinsburg

Tuesday, April 1, 7:00 PM, Baha’i Regional Center, 308 S. Buchannan St.
Ranson

Wednesday, April 2, 12:30 PM, Erma Ora Byrd Nursing Hall Auditorium,
Shepherd University Shepherdstown

More information & venue directions: http://mercykillerswv.wordpress.com
or contact epspan@gmail.com

HR 676 would institute a single payer health care system by expanding a
greatly improved Medicare to everyone residing in the U. S.

HR 676 would cover every person for all necessary medical care including
prescription drugs, hospital, surgical, outpatient services, primary and
preventive care, emergency services, dental (including oral surgery,
periodontics, endodontics), mental health, home health, physical therapy,
rehabilitation (including for substance abuse), vision care and
correction, hearing services including hearing aids, chiropractic, durable
medical equipment, palliative care, podiatric care, and long term care.

HR 676 ends deductibles and co-payments. HR 676 would save hundreds of
billions annually by eliminating the high overhead and profits of the
private health insurance industry and HMOs.

In the current Congress, HR 676 has 54 co-sponsors including Congressman
Conyers.

HR 676 has been endorsed by 610 union organizations including 147 Central
Labor Councils/Area Labor Federations and 44 state AFL-CIO’s (KY, PA, CT,
OH, DE, ND, WA, SC, WY, VT, FL, WI, WV, SD, NC, MO, MN, ME, AR, MD-DC, TX,
IA, AZ, TN, OR, GA, OK, KS, CO, IN, AL, CA, AK, MI, MT, NE, NJ, NY, NV,
MA, RI, NH, ID & NM).

For further information, a list of union endorsers, or a sample
endorsement resolution, contact:

Kay Tillow
All Unions Committee for Single Payer Health Care–HR 676
c/o Nurses Professional Organization (NPO)
1169 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2218
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 636 1551

Email: nursenpo@aol.com
http://unionsforsinglepayer.org

2/4/2014