UEPI News and Commentary

Rep. John Lewis Tilts to Obama, and other reports about the Prez campaigns

Friends,

Congressperson John Lewis of Georgia, a hero of the civil rights movement, is now supporting Barack Obama. See story in today's New York Times, below. Plus, an article from American Prospect on what Clinton and Obama should do to win over Edwards' supports. Plus, Harold Meyerson's column on why the Democrats' need to avoid a bitter convention fight that will only help McCain. Plus, Barbara Ehrenreich on the Obama campaign. Plus, SEIU's endorsement of Obama.

Peter

If McCain's a Moderate, I'm the Easter Bunny

From yesterday's Huffington Post...

Californians - Vote Today!

There's more excitement about this year's presidential election than we've seen in decades. The California primary tomorrow will play a big role in which candidate gets nominated. On the Democratic side, the Los Angeles Times said today that the contest between Clinton and Obama is too close to call, according to the latest poll.  Political observers are expecting a very high turnout -- similar to what we've seen in other primary states. Turnout is particularly high among first-time votes and young people.

The Year of the Organizer

In California,  Hillary Clinton's lead over Barack Obama is narrowing. The Los Angeles Times today even says the primary is now dead even.  The same is true in other states where Clinton was leading, but where now the race is very close. Although some of Obama's momentum no doubt comes from voters watching the debates and from high-profile endorsements (like Ted Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, and, yesterday, Maria Shriver), it is also due, in large measure, to Obama's grassroots campaign, which has recruited  organizers from community groups, enviro groups, unions, and other activist organizations. They, in turn, have enlisted tens of thousands of volunteers and trained them in the skills of community organizing. Kelly Candaele and I examine this phenomenon in our article, "The Year of the Organizer," in The American Prospect.

What have unions ever done for us ? - Monty Python Australian style

Friends:

Watch this video and send it to anyone who has ever asked, "why do we need unions?"

The AFL-CIO and/or Change to Win should make a US version of this. It would help lay the groundwork for getting the Employee Free Choice Act passed after a Democrat wins the White House, and the Democratic majority grows in Congress, in November.

[One word in the video may require some explanation: "Superannuation" is a pension scheme in Australia. It has a compulsory element whereby employers are required by law to pay a proportion of an employee's salaries and wages (currently nine percent) into a superannuation fund, which can be accessed when the employee retires].

Peter

Honor Dr. King by taking action

Friends,

On his TV show Friday night, Bill Moyers included a brief (7 minute) segment on the relationship of President Johnson and Martin Luther King (and more broadly, the civil rights movement) that was eloquent, inspiring, and mesmerizing. It is available on YouTube and I encourage you to view it and spread the word to others.  It really cuts through a lot of the recent tempest about the respective roles of, and credit due to, MLK and LBJ around civil rights legislation, honors the memory of Dr. King, puts LBJ's efforts in proper perspective, and addresses the broader theme of the importance of having both "outside agitators" and inside deal-makers to win progressive legislation.

Organizing and Politics: Insiders vs Outsiders?

Friends -

Grassroots organizing is the lifeblood of progressive politics. In the 1960s, many radicals looked at politics as working either "inside" or "outside" the "system."  But the reality is more complicated than this either/or perspective. The recent tempest between the Obama and Clinton campaigns about whether Martin Luther King or President Lyndon Johnson deserved the most recent for the enactment of civil rights legislation provides an opportunity to examine the way things really work -- which is that all progressive reform requires both grassroots activists organizing from "outside" as well as liberal and progressive elected officials and lobbyists working from "inside" to push and then broker compromises to get things passed. This is the point of my article with Kelly Candaele in yesterday's HuffingtonPost. 

Bush's Class Warfare

Friends -

Just a week before Christmas, President Bush gave corporate America two big presents. On Tuesday, his Federal Communications Commission changed the rules to allow the nation's giant conglomerates to further consolidate their grip on the media by permitting them to purchase TV and radio stations in the same local markets where they already own daily newspapers. The following day, as a gift to the country's automobile industry, Bush's Environmental Protection Agency ruled, over the objections of the agency's staff, that California, the nation's largest and most polluted state, and 16 other states, can't impose regulations to limit greenhouse gases from cars and trucks that are stronger than the federal government's own weak standards. So far, no major politicians or editorial writers have labeled Bush's actions "class warfare," although this is precisely what he is engaged in. My piece in today's Huffington Post asks why is it that, to the mainstream media, "top-down" class warfare seems to be OK, but "bottom-up" class warfare -- waged by the burgeoning progressive movement of unions, community organizing groups, environmental activists, immigrant rights organizations, and others -- seems to be a no-no?  If you don't want to read another litany of Bush's crimes and misdeeds, don't fret; my article has a happy ending. 

mortgage meltdown; baseball steroid scandal; how unions help the economy; edwards; NCLB; what the Dems should do on Jan. 2008; fun with Alan Greenspan

Friends -

Here is a hodgepodge of articles (only one by me) on different topics that might be of interest:

Brad Whitford's West Wing nightmare: President Rudy "Dirty Trickster" Giuliani

Friends:

Its Halloween season and the Republicans have launched another "dirty tricks" effort to try (again) to steal the White House. They want to change the rules so they can steal 20 of California's Electoral College votes. Brad Whitford has made a great YouTube video, on behalf of the Courage Campaign, to fight the GOP's  "dirty trick." I encourage you to click here and watch it:

Then I encourage you to help out by on the Courage Campaign website to find out what YOU can do.

Thanks.
Peter

A Progressive Agenda for "Housing the Working Poor" and other issues

Friends - 

The current (Fall 2007) issue of Shelterforce magazine, published by the National Housing Institute, explores strategies for promoting a progressive housing agenda in a Democratic-controlled Congress and White House after January 2009. It includes my cover story, "Housing the Working Poor," and a critique by Barbara Sard of the Center for Budget & Policy Priorities. In addition, Greg Squires of George Washington University offers a proposal for building a more robust fair-housing movement. PLUS: In “Struggling in the Crescent City,”  learn how a burgeoning network of local grass-roots organizations has taken the lead in rebuilding homes and neighborhoods two years after Katrina hit New Orleans.

With the majority of Americans now in favor of reducing poverty and dealing with the growing economic insecurity of middle-income families (including the accelerating wave of foreclosures, loss of health insurance and pensions), the time is right to advance progressive policies for achieving social and economic equity into the mainstream of American politics. Housing activists are strategizing with their political allies on how to move this agenda to center stage in the 2008 presidential debate.

Ralph Nader's War

Today's Huffington Post carries my article, "Ralph Nader's War." In this piece, I lament that Nader, once a hero to millions of Americans and a mentor to many activists, is now better-known for his political blunders, particularly his role in helping elect George W. and the outrageous things that have occurred as a result, including the war in Iraq. Nader is dropping hints that he might run again, suggesting that he learned nothing from the 2000 election debacle. Yes, Bush "stole" the election in Florida, but he wouldn't have been able to steal it if, a week or two before the election, Nader had encouraged his supporters to vote for Gore to avoid a Bush victory.

Labor Day: 2007

Friends,

Labor Day began as a celebration of the struggle for workers' rights, the battle for the 8 hour day, and the role of labor unions as an instrument for social justice.  As usual, the mainstream media (with some notable exceptions) treated Labor Day as a three-day weekend, or as a day for sales on sheets and pillowcases. Few papers used Labor Day as an opportunity to assess the status of working Americans or the labor movement.  Indeed, few daily papers even have a "labor beat" reporter anymore. A reporter for a big-city newspaper called me two days before Labor Day to interview me for a story about the labor movement's agenda for the next year. He had just gotten the assignment and admitted he knew very little about the labor movement.  This is typical of most major daily papers. They all have huge "business" sections, but not a single labor reporter.

Strengthening the "right to organize"

A sure sign that progressives are changing the political debate in the country is the fact that the New York Times devoted its entire June 10 magazine to articles about inequality and poverty.  The issue includes an article on an SEIU union organizing campaign, another on global poverty, another on the role on class and schools, and one on widening economic equality. There's also an article (and cover photo) about John Edwards, reflecting the fact that he's been focusing on these issues as part of his presidential campaign.  The Edwards article is pasted below.

What's the real story behind the US Attorney scandal?

Most of the mainstream media has missed the real story behind the firing of US Attorney David C. Iglesias of New Mexico and his counterparts in other states. As John Atlas explains in the summer 2007 issue of Shelterforce, Iglesias lost his job in December 2005 after he declined to prosecute a voter-fraud case against ACORN, the community organizing group that had been registering large numbers of voters in the state's low-income and largely minority neighborhoods in 2004.  But this isn't an isolated incident.  Karl Rove's strategy has been to make it much more difficult for poor and minority people to register to vote and to vote, particularly in key swing states. Harrassing groups like ACORN that register and mobilize the poor, on trumped up charges of "voter fraud," has been a major tactic of the Bush administration. In firing Iglesias, Attorney General Gonzales was just following orders.  Although the Bush administration has been unable to back up its "voter fraud" charges against ACORN,  the group has had to spend time and money defending itself against the Bush administration's harassment -- another part of the Bush strategy to keep progressives off-balance and on the defensive.  Fortunately, ACORN has fought back and has continued to register voters, mobilize the poor, and win grassroot campaigns for living wages, affordable housing, and other issues.  In the short-term, making Gonzalez the scapegoat serves the Bush administration's purposes of deflecting media attention away from the misdeeds of Bush, Cheney and Rove. But having a Democratic majority in Congress has made it more difficult for B, C, and R to hide their corrupt practices, especially with people like Cong. Henry Waxman using their power to investigate and hold public hearings on everything from Bush's attempt to suppress voter registration and turnout to the war-profiteering of politically-connected corporation.

The New Gilded Age and the Burgeoning New Progressive Era

America's new Gilded Age -- widening inequality and deteriorating social conditions -- is triggering a new Progressive Era, an upsurge of progressive organizing, ideas, and electoral shifts. This is reflected in several ways, including:

This year's LA Business Journal look at the 50 Wealthiest People in the LA area came out this week.  The net worth of LA's 50 richest -- $118 billion this year - has doubled in less than a decade. The LABJ editor asked me to write a commentary on this year's list.  I initially called the piece "LA's New Gilded Age" but the editors changed the title to one I'm not happy with. At the end, I suggest four federal policies that would both lift many people out of poverty and reduce the widening gap between the rich and everyone else.

One aspect of the burgeoning progressive movement is the upsurge of grassroots organizing among LA's renters, which I discussed in my op-ed, "LA Renters Strike Back," in Sunday's Los Angeles Times. 

Another aspect is the immigrant rights movement. One of its key national leaders is Angelica Salas, an Occidental graduate who heads the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in LA (CHIRLA).  I was proud that Oxy gave Angelica an honorary degree at our May 20 commencement, which led to this wonderful column in the Sunday LA Times by Steve Lopez. 

Finally, another progressive sign of the times is the anti-poverty and pro-union focus of John Edwards' presidential campaign, about which the LA Times published an article yesterday, although tinged with the typical media skepticism. As the Times reports, Edwards has spent much of the past two years working with unions and community organizing groups like ACORN around grassroots campaigns to mobilize low-wage workers. His presidential campaign reflects this commitment.

Good news on the housing front

LA's persistent housing crisis is getting more attention, thanks to the growing activism of community and tenant groups, including a creative protest last week, reported in the LA Times article below, at a UCLA real estate finance class taught by a local landlord who is trying to evict his Section 8 tenants. Three weeks ago, activists held a Tent City protest outside LA City Hall and a week later organized a march to City Hall that included civil disobedience inside the City Council chambers.   These protests generated media attention but, equally important, a positive response from elected officials, who are now more involved in responding to concerns of Housing LA, a broad coalition of community and tenant groups, nonprofit developers, unions, and others.  This demonstrates the importance of grassroots organizing.  In general the mainstream media downplay or ignore the housing crisis and the plight of tenants unless grassroots groups promote policy ideas and then create the political tension needed to inject them into the media and the public debate.   More good news is reflected in this article from yesterday's LA Times about the efforts of local building trade (construction) unions to recruit people of color and residents of inner city neighborhoods, including former gang members. My old boss, Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, used to say that "the best social policy is a good job." This article suggests the truth of that statement.

Recent and Future Labor Victories!

Good news, and good potential news, on the union front:

Maryland has passed the nation's first statewide living wage law -- it requires employers doing business with the state government to pay workers $11.30/hour in the Baltimore/Washington area and less in other parts of the state. Baltimore was the first city in the country to pass a local living wage law (1994) and the idea spread quickly. More than 100 cities now have such laws. Let's hope that Maryland is, once again, a pioneer in an idea that will spread to other states.

Santa Fe, NM passed a citywide minimum wage law a few years ago. At the time, business leaders warned that it would destroy the local economy, but those Chicken Littles were wrong, as columnist Rick Wartzman in the LA Times points out in his article today. He suggests that LA and other cities should consider doing the same thing.

Kelly Candaele and I wrote an article this week for TomPaine.Com on the importance of the pending labor law reform bill in Congress - the Employee Free Choice Act. (This is a different and more straightforward version of the article we published in the Chronicle of Higher Education this week).  If passed,  the EFCA would help trigger a revival of union membership and, more broadly, of progressive politics.

Why we need labor law reform for a better America

Friends, Colleagues, and Students:

I have coauthored an article with Kelly Candaele in the current (May 11) issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education about the Employee Free Choice Act, a key bill to reform America's one-sided (anti-union) labor laws. The article points out that stronger unions mean a better society for everyone, but also focuses on its importance for advocates of public schools and higher education. Here's the link.

Learn more about the Employee Free Choice Act and find out if your Senators and Congressperson are cosponsors of this bill.

USC Students Sitting In Against Sweatshops

Student activism is alive and well. According to a phone call I just received from a USC student, 13 USC students are currently sitting-in at President Steve Sample's office to demand that USC join 30 others universities and colleges to the anti-sweatshop Designated Suppliers Program (DSP). Here is the DSP website with a description of the anti-sweatshop program and a list of the 30 universities that have joined DSP, including the UC system, Columbia, Cornell, Wisconsin, U/Conn, Colorado, Brandeis, Skidmore, Smith, Indiana, Miami, Syracuse and Iowa.   Here is a YouTube video about recent USC protests on this issue.  Here is an article I wrote in The Nation last year about the DSP.

Below is an email from United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) about the USC protest.

See Lyn Goldfarb's great documentary, "The New Los Angeles"

THE NEW LOS ANGELES is screening at two LA film festivals this month. Never have the stories in the film—living wage, hotel worker organizing, immigrant rights, black-brown dialogue—been more timely than in today's Los Angeles.

Director Lyn Goldfarb will be at both screenings.

Saturday, March 17th @ 7:00 PM*
The Other Venice Film Festival @ Switch Studios
316 S. Venice Blvd, Venice, CA, 90291
Tickets: $10; Street parking available
*THE NEW LOS ANGELES is part of the Political Film Series 1 programming block and will be preceded by 25 minutes of shorts. For more information or to purchase tickets online (recommended), visit www.othervenicefilmfest.com.

Sunday, March 18th @ 3:30 PM**
San Fernando Valley International Film Festival @ Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn
4222 Vineland Ave, North Hollywood, CA 91602
Tickets: FREE (seating on a first come basis); Parking at hotel: $6
**THE NEW LOS ANGELES is part of the Documentaries programming block and will be preceded by two films, so we anticipate THE NEW LOS ANGELES will begin around 5:30 PM (please arrive early to ensure a seat). For more information, visit www.viffi.com.

Snapshots in the struggle for social justice....

Los Angeles' hotel workers -- and their allies in the labor movement, community groups, and faith-based communities -- won a major victory last week when the LA City Council voted to extend the city's living wage law to the 3500 workers at the 13 hotels near Los Angeles Int'l Airport.  My article about this victory appears in The Nation today.

John Edwards' War on Poverty

I've written two articles about John Edwards' presidential campaign, focusing on his pledge to reduce inequality and poverty, and the chances of his winning the Democratic Party nomination.

The first (shorter) version appeared yesterday in the British daily newspaper, The Guardian: "The New War on Poverty."

The second, longer version of this piece appears on the website of Tikkun magazine: "John Edwards War on Poverty."

A belated Happy MLK Day

Most Americans today know that Dr. King  was killed in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, but fewer know (or remember) why he was there -- to support African American garbage workers, who were on strike to protest unsafe conditions, abusive white supervisors, and low wages -- and to gain recognition for their union. My article in yesterday's American Prospect, "Why He Was in Memphis," recounts King's growing ties with the labor movement his understanding about the  importance of forging close links between the civil rights and labor movements, and his role in the Memphis struggle. If he were alive today, he'd surely be on the front lines of many labor struggles, the fight for a living wage, universal health care, and withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

William Jones has a piece on a similar theme in The Nation this week.

Also, a new book about the news media's coverage of the civil rights movement offers great insights into both the movement and the media. It is called: The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, and it recounts both the strengths and weaknesses of press coverage of the freedom struggle.  Here are Eric Alterman's review of the book in The Nation and Jon Wiener's review in the Los Angeles Times.

My article last year in Dissent, "Rose Parks: Angry, Not Tired," examines some of the myths about the Montgomery bus boycott, when Dr. King first came to national prominence, and the lessons of that battle for organizing.

Keep your eyes on the prize.

Are we ready for a real health care debate?

Happy new year. Will 2007 be the year for health care reform -- or at least the beginning of a debate over a single-payer system? It looks like America might be ready for a real public dicussion about health care reform, as several recent articles, including one in yesterday's (December 31) New York Times indicate. 

The last time we had a debate about health care was in 1993, when Bill Clinton proposed, but bungled, a universal health insurance plan. The insurance, drug, and HMO industries waged an all-out campaign to kill any effort to regulate costs (and, of course, profits). Remember the "Harry and Louise" ads? The Democrats, who back then controlled both the Senate and House, were too divided to agree on a common approach, killing any chance for reform. Clinton was unwilling to challenge the insurance and drug companies, who eventually persuaded other big businesses (represented by the Business Roundtable, which initially was favorable toward reform) to oppose the Clinton plan.

Purdue students hunger strike now in 19th day

Student activism is alive and well, even if under-reported by the mainstream media.

Purdue University students are entering their 19th day on hunger strike to get their university to adopt the Designated Supplier Program, a program to allow colleges and universities to purchase clothing from socially responsible factories instead of sweatshops.

The Purdue hunger strikers and their allies are asking people to sign the online petition: www.purduehungerstrike.org, and learn out more about it here.

Students at Purdue are meeting with the university administration on Wednesday.

Here is an article from the Indianapolis Star about the hunger strike.

More than 20 colleges and universities--including the University of California system, Duke, Indiana, Wisconsin, Georgetown, Connecticut,Syracuse and Columbia--have already agreed to support the Designated Supplier Program. Articles that describe the program can be found here and here.

For more about the anti-sweatshop movement, check out the websites for United Students Against Sweatshops and the affiliated watchdog/monitoring group, Workers Rights Consortium.

What Should the Dems Do Now?

Since November 7, there's been much discussion about what the Democrats should be doing now that they have majorities in both houses of Congress. There are disagreements within the party -- and among key constitutency groups -- on some key questions of strategy and policy. The Dems will control the committees, control the flow of legislation, decide what issues should be subjects of public hearings, decide what investigations to initiate, decide which of Bush's nominees for judgeships and Cabinet posts to accept or reject, and decide when to compromise with the President on legislation and when to allow Bush to veto, and Congressional Republicans to register votes opposed to, Democratic-sponsored bills.  The key question: how can progressives help the Democratics turn their recent victory into a more stable long-term reallignment of American politics in order to fashion the next New Deal?

Here is some food for thought on these strategic and policy questions:

Milton Friedman is NOT dead

To the LA Times Editor:

Milton Friedman is NOT dead

(November 17)

The LA Times story on the front page of  Friday's Business section examined the business community's reaction to the City Council's recent vote to require hotels near LAX to pay its employees a living wage of at least $10.64 an hour.  In fact, only one business leader was quoted in the article. It also quoted one elected official. What's troubling is that the article quotes four "experts" -- economists and economics consultants -- none of whom have anything positive to say about the living wage ordinance. If you were using these four experts as sources because they represent a pro-business perspective, that should have been made clear. Otherwise, it appears that "experts" share a negative view of such laws. In fact, there are plenty of economists, economic development consultants, and other experts whose views about minimum wage and living wage laws are more positive. This article is thus incredibly one-sided in terms of the people whose views were solicited and quoted.

Voters want minimum wage hike

As John Atlas and I write in the American Prospect this week, and as Barbara Ehrenreich observes in a column for AlterNet, one of the most impressive outcomes of last Tuesday's election was the overwhelming support that voters showed for raising the minimum wage. This is a huge victory for economic justice.

ACORN, unions, and church groups played key roles in mounting these grassroots campaigns that not only won victories for low-wage workers but also increased voter turnout sufficiently to help elect Democrats Claire McCaskill and John Tester to the U.S. Senate in Missouri and Montana, respectively -- thus giving the Dems a majority in the Senate.

In six states - Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado -- voters passed ballot measures to hike the minimum wage. Each of these included an annual cost-of-living adjustment. That brings to 28 the number of states that now have minimum wages higher than the federal level; and brings to 10 the number of states with minimum wage laws incorporating an annual adjustment to keep pace with inflation.

Public opinion surveys show that over 80% of Americans, and almost three-quarters of Republican, want Congress to boost the minimum wage over $7 an hour. But last Tuesday's election should give the Democrats the ammunition and backbone they need to push for something more a federal minimum wage hike that includes an annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).

Members of Congress already have a COLA themselves, as seniors have for Social Security, and many unions have in their contracts. Corporate CEOs get compensation raises that far exceed inflation, so why shouldn't the working poor at least get a rise to keep up with the increasing cost of gas, rent,food, clothing, and other necessities?

Meyerson's eulogy for the progressive LA Weekly

Friends,

I am sending you two important pieces by journalist Harold Meyerson. The first -- linked here -- is his final "Powerlines" column in the LA Weekly, a retrospective on LA politics and the LA Weekly's role as a progressive voice in our community, during his almost two decades at the paper. It is his final column because the new owners of the Weekly let Harold go. Don't mourn for Harold. He's doing fine from his pundit perch in DC. He was recently promoted to editor of the American Prospect and will continue as a regular columnist for the Washington Post.  But mourn for LA, which will miss Harold's strong reporting and commentary on LA politics and movements for justice.

Dorothy Healey, Los Angeles Advocate for Progressive Change

Few progressive activists under 60 will know the name Dorothy Healey -- who died yesterday at age 91 -- but she was a remarkable organizer and activist. Tiny in stature, she was a charismatic and inspiring speaker, a feisty firebrand with a great sense of humor, who began her activism as a teenager and persisted through her late 80s.  The obituary in today's (Tuesday's) LA Times is reasonably thorough, but doesn't really capture the energy and enthusiasm that was so forceful and contagious.  Even people (like myself) who disagreed with some of her political views -  she was a leader of the LA branch of the Communist Party from the 1940s through the 1960s -- learned a great deal from her organizing skills and her lifetime commitment to social, economic and racial justice. Like her colleague Frank Wilkinson, who died last year, she was a long distance runner for progressive change. I haven't made contact with her son Richard yet, but I assume there will be an LA memorial event for her at some point.

John Edwards and the Politics of Poverty

In a walnut paneled conference room, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with Georgian chandeliers, Remington-style bronze reproductions, 17th century Flemish art and Persian carpets, including one woven by servants of the Shah of Iran, John Edwards sat in the same chair at a small round table for two days taking copious notes, as panels of policy wonks expounded on new approaches to fight poverty.

In the age of George W., Wal-mart, and free market ideology, few public officials or candidates for office have much to say about the persistence of poverty in the world's wealthiest nation. Yet here was Edwards, calculating whether and how to run for president, at a two-day seminar on poverty that, while attracting 200 people, really had only one student. Read the rest of my article on the Common Dreams website...

Happy MLK Day

Many of you have seen the LA Times' 4-day series last week criticizing the United Farm Workers.  In response, I wrote this op-ed, published in the Sunday LA Times (yesterday), criticizing the paper's general coverage of labor and workplace issues.

On a positive note, the NY Times Magazine yesterday ran a great cover story on the growing "living wage" movement around the country, focusing on ACORN staffer Jen Kern.
And Holly Sklar has a great article about Dr. King's views about economic justice and labor on the TomPaine website.

The new (Winter 2006) issue of Dissent has my tribute to Rosa Parks.

CommonSense last week published a tribute to civil liberties and housing activist Frank Wilkinson by Jan Breidenbach and me.  It was also published in The Nation as part of Katrina Vanden Heuvel's column.

Also in The Nation, I recommend "A Top Ten List of Bold Ideas" by Gar Alperovitz and Thad Williamson. Even if you don't agree with all of these ideas it is important for progressives to create a positive forward-looking agenda, not just be against things.

Something to be against, though, are the huge tax break for the wealthy, including that part of the homeowner deduction that goes to the richest folks with the biggest homes. My article in the current issue of Shelterforce examines President Bush's tax reform task force and its recent recommendation to reform what I call the "mansion subsidy":

Finally, I recommend a new report by Columbia University economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and Harvard lecturer Linda Bilmes, who estimate the cost of the war in Iraq at $2 trillion - four times more than the Bush administration's projections.

Frank Wilkinson's Legacy

The obituaries for Frank Wilkinson,  who died January 2 at 91, primarily focused on his role as a leading opponent of McCarthyism, the House Un-American Activities Committee, and government spying on citizens. In 1958,  Wilkinson was one of the last people ordered to prison for defying HUAC.  He appealed his contempt citation all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled 5 to 4 against him. After spending nine months in federal prison in 1961, Wilkinson through the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, spend more than a decade fighting to dismantle HUAC, which was finally abolished in 1975. Wilkinson also fought the FBI.  He sued the FBI to obtain its files on him, eventually getting 132,000 documents,  which revealed that the agency had been spying on him for 38 years. A federal judge order the FBI to end its surveillance of Wilkinson.