The Tea Party Movement's Backward March

www.peoplesworld.org Feb 19, 2010

By Jarvis Tyner fter watching the Nashville convention wasn’t a surprise that his remarks were greeted othe tea party movement, it is clear that with cheers and loud applause. they continue to be a racist, red-baiting Tancredo went on to blame the election of A movement against health care reform, Obama on “the cult of multiculturalism,” what- jobs for all, an end to war, and economic and so- ever that is. Tancredo would no doubt prefer to go cial justice. back to a time when the cult of segregation domi- They are out to bring down Barack Obama nated our national life. because they see him as a force for progressive In response to Tancredo’s ridiculous claims, change and they are against progressive change. Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree made the They are a movement to take our country back to the policies of Reagan, Bush or worse. t h i s w e e k : As the conference showed, they have few people of color in their ranks. That is because, while • The tea party movement’s backward march they say they are “color blind,” they are against • Editorial: U.S. should close Futenma base any measures for racial equality and inclusion. • Hope grows for U.S.-Cuba scientific cooperation The opening speaker at the conference was • Las guerras bananeras y el fraude de libre comercio none other than the notorious right wing bigot, • Hansberry home gets landmark status former Congressman Tom Tancredo. Tancredo told the nearly all-white gathering read more news and opinion daily at www.peoplesworld.org that the reason Obama was elected was because people voted for him “who could not even spell the word ‘vote’ or say it in English.” Tancredo went on point on the Rachel Maddow Show that most of to call for bringing back literacy tests. Obama’s votes came from whites. Tancredo’s despicable proposal would bring But the tea party conference was keynoted by back what was a vicious method of denying the a racist speech and no one there objected. franchise to Black voters and is now illegal, as a This was a meeting of people who do not be- way to prevent the election of an Obama type can- lieve that the last presidential election was legiti- didate in the future. Looking at his audience, it mate. They don’t even believe that the president

Page 1 is a U.S. citizen. They are opposed to any govern- Palin knows when she attacks Obama that she ment spending to help the massive numbers of un- is furthering racial division in the country, which employed, impoverished, foreclosed and evicted - is an especially dangerous game to play during all victims of the Republican-initiated Wall Street hard economic times. Her racist attacks on immi- ripoff that brought down the nation’s economy. This was a grants, her opposition to any government spend- Concern for the 40,000 people who annually ing to help working families survive the crisis meeting of people die needlessly because they don’t have health in- -- all of these attacks give encouragement to the who do not believe surance is not their cup of tea. The 30 million still racist lunatic fringe. that the last uninsured should just perish if their coverage is Their aim is to help the extreme right take presidential by a government-run program. “Smaller govern- back the Congress in November and the presiden- election was ment” is more important. cy in 2012. legitimate. The tea party notion of “pro-life” does not ex- Whether they succeed depends on the level of tend to those who have died because of U.S. pre- activity of the broad democratic, multiracial, la- emptive wars, or to the 40,000 people who annu- bor and people’s coalition. If this coalition is acti- ally die needlessly because they don’t have health vated on the issues of jobs, health care and peace insurance. Military spending is exempt from their the right will suffer another setback. opposition to big government spending. This fight cannot be won by Obama alone or Sarah Palin, the $100,000 speaker, is making by the Democratic majority in Congress alone. hay on the backs of this movement. She thinks she Without street heat, without real grassroots is presidential timber (2012). I doubt it, but for organizing, we could lose the fight for change and sure she will come out of this a very rich racist, be pushed back to the Bush era or worse. We dare red-baiting demagogue. not let that happen. Palin has jumped in front of this backward march. Her notion that Obama is more like a col- lege professor and what we need is a commander in chief is another version of calling him “uppity.” Jarvis Tyner writes for the Peoples World.

U.S. should close Futenma base

By PW Editorial Board Residents of Okinawa have argued against its re- apanese voters are angry. Last year, they location for more than a dozen years. There are elected a liberal-left reform party that some 14 U.S. military bases on Okinawa, which promised to close the U.S. Futenma mili- have caused long-standing problems, among J tary base in Okinawa. Last month, the them pollution and crime. U.S. soldiers have as- voters in Nago, on the northern part of the island saulted, and even raped, Okinawan residents over chain, elected a mayor who opposed the relocation the years, infuriating the people there and leading of Futenma to their town. The incumbent mayor to anti-American tensions. In 2005, the U.S. and who lost supported the construction. Yet, the U.S. Japan signed an agreement to move Futenma to government is trying to bully the Japanese gov- Henoko (near Nago). But the will of the Japanese The people of ernment with the threat of serious consequences people has to be taken into account. Japan are not if it doesn’t accept relocating the base. U.S.-based Just Foreign Policy is urging peo- backing down. But the people of Japan are not backing ple to send a message to President Obama and They want down. They want Futenma closed. And the U.S. Congress to “respect democracy in Japan” and Futenma closed. people should support them. close, not relocate, the Futenma Air Base. And the U.S. Japan’s Akahata newspaper reports that Such a move would not endanger U.S. secu- people should at the planned construction site for relocating rity. It would enhance it by showing that the U.S. support them. Futenma, Nago residents have been staging a sit- respects Japan. It would also save billions of dol- in struggle against the plan. They have set up a a lars a year - for both U.S. and Japanese taxpayers tent community on the place where the U.S. plans - that could be put to human and environmental to build an on-sea heliport, destroying important needs. marine habitat, including coral reefs, with a mas- It’s the kind of change U.S. voters wanted too. sive landfill. The Futenma base opposition is not new.

www.peoplesworld.org Page 2 Hope grows for U.S.-Cuba scientific cooperation

By Bea Lumpkin

cientific cooperation between the U.S. and Cuba received a recent boost with the visit of a U.S. delegation to Havana. The S delegation was led by Peter Agre head of the American Association for the Advancement of

Science (AAAS). The U.S. delegation went to Cuba for meet- ings aimed at building a foundation for expanded science and engineering cooperation between the retary of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. two countries. Agre is a Nobel laureate in chem- Last spring, President Barack Obama opened up a istry. freer flow of information and humanitarian aid to The visit, November 10 to 13, 2009, brought Cuba. Meanwhile, some members of the U.S. Con- together nongovernmental science and diplomacy gress are working on easing or ending the ban on Last spring, leaders from the United States with science lead- travel to Cuba. President Barack ers from Cuban institutes and universities and An interesting sidelight of the trip was the Obama opened staff from the Cuban Council of State. part played by Fidel Ángel Castro Díaz-Balart- up a freer flow of The head of the Lounsbery Foundation, Fidel Castro’s oldest son. The younger Castro is a information and which sponsored the visit, Maxmillian Angerhol- nuclear physicist and leader in Cuba’s science pol- humanitarian aid zer III, is quoted in Science as saying, “Cuba takes icy community. Arrangements for the U.S.-Cuba to Cuba. so much pride in its science and medical capaci- exchange had been delayed by the hurricanes that ties. When you’re trying to use science as a way slammed the length of Cuba last fall. Fortunately, to bring countries together, it’s best to do it when Castro Díaz-Balart attended a conference in Japan there are similar interests and shared goals.” and met Vaughan Turekian, the chief internation- U.S. delegation members mentioned several al officer of AAAS. Turekian told Science, “I was fields where the two nations might work together- able to tell him about our planned delegation and from meteorology and marine sciences to infec- the fact that Peter Agre would be leading it. He tious diseases and informal science education. was very receptive and helped facilitate a meeting The exchange was only the third since the with his own staff when we were in Havana.” 1960s. Interest in scientific engagement between While research collaboration was the main the two neighbors is growing. An October 2008 topic, the delegation also spent a lot of time talk- editorial in Science helped lay the groundwork for ing about making sure that results of their re- the visit. It was co-authored by Sergio Jorge Pas- search would be put to work for the people. trana, foreign secretary of the Academia de Cien- cias de Cuba, and Michael T. Clegg, foreign sec- www.peoplesworld.org Page 3 local news Las guerras bananeras y el L o c a l c o n t a ct [email protected] fraude de libre comercio (parte 2) Hansberry home Por Emile Schepers gets landmark status empresas bananeras basadas en los n Aracataca, Colombia en Estados Unidos de producir plátanos By Pepe Lozano 1928, el ejercito masacró a mas baratos no se debe solo a la es- cientos de trabajadores que cala de sus operaciones, sino también E estaban en huelga en con- a la represión que logran emplear en onoring contributions tra de United Fruit, un incidente que contra de los obreros y sindicatos en made by the Black Renais- forma un tema central el “Cien Años de los países donde tienen sus mayores sance Literary Movement Solidad” por Gabriel García Márquez. unidades. Y el gobierno de los Estados in the mid-20th century Y esto no es un historial de cosas del Unidos ha respaldado esta represión. H pasado remoto. Actualmente hay Esto nos hace pensar bien de lo here, the City Council approved official landmark status for the former homes acusaciones de parte paramilitares “libre” de “libre comercio”. ¿Libre para of several well-known African American derechistas en Colombia de que tanto quien? Obviamente no para los tra- writers. Chiquita como Dole han pagado a para- bajadores de las fincas bananeras en One of them is the Lorraine Hansberry militares para reprimir con violencia lugares como Honduras, donde, por House located in the city’s Woodlawn y hasta matar a activistas laborales enésima vez, un golpe de estado ha community. Hansberry is best known que amenazan a sus ganancias. Pros- puesto en jaque a las reformas labo- as the author of “A Raisin in the Sun,” ecución en los Estados Unidos culminó rales y agrícolas. which was the first drama by an Afri- con una multa de $25 millones que Los países del grupo APC recla- can American woman to be produced on Chiquita acordó pagar. Hay demandas man que el nuevo arreglo los perju- Broadway. civiles que todavía están en la corte dica y favorece a las transnacionales Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, her (https://nacla.org/node/6315). basadas en los Estados Unidos. Pero sister, Mamie Hansberry, now 86 and En Guatemala, en 1954, la geren- también es el caso que de los países living in Los Angeles, said she was a cia de United Fruit creía que reformas antiguamente excluidos por los altos teenager in the 1930s when the family progresistas de leyes agrícolas y labo- aranceles europeos, hay varios, como first moved into the home, in a white rales, patrocinadas por el presidente Ecuador, Nicaragua y Guatemala, que neighborhood. She recalled the time Jacobo Arbenz, representaban una ahora tienen gobiernos más progre- when a chunk of cement was thrown amenaza para las ganancias. Entre los sistas que intentan mejorar las condi- through the family’s window. The piece mayores accionistas de United Fruit se ciones de sus obreros y agricultores. of cement was lodged into the wall, she encontraban dos hermanos poderosísi- Excluir a esos países del enorme mer- said. mos: El canciller estadounidense John cado europeo no los ayuda tampoco. “That was a grotesque sight to see that Foster Dulles y el jefe de la Agencia De modo que regresar a lo antiguo no lodged in the wall,” she told the Tribune. Central de Inteligencia (CIA), Allen es la respuesta. “You know that somebody doesn’t like Dulles. Arreglaron un golpe de estado Todo el tópico de comercio in- you, doesn’t want you there.” que derrocó a Arbenz y sometió a Gua- ternacional debe re pensarse desde el Lorraine and Mamie’s father Carl Hans- temala a un martirio largo que even- fondo, en una manera que favorece los berry waged a three-year legal battle for tualmente cobró un saldo de 200,000 derechos de obreros y campesinos y no the family’s right to live in their new vidas inocentes, quizás más. las ganancias de los monopolios. home. The struggle culminated in 1940 Pues, la capacidad de las grandes with a U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped end racially discriminatory hous- ing covenants in the city. The Hansberry family and their legal n a t i o n a l c o n t a ct victory became a symbol of progress for the civil rights movement. Their courage Editorial: (773) 446-9920 Business: (212) 924-2523

and commitment paved the way to chal- Email: [email protected] lenge segregation and help make civil rights advances.