PHOTO BY TARMO HANNULA

Tents line a section of Highway 1 at Hwy. 9 Aug. 15. The Housing Matter's Rebele Family Shelter is in the background.

Rep. Panetta Doesn't Represent Us - Next Steps

BY RICK LONGINOTTI

At the last day of the Hiroshima Week Vigil, people expressed gratitude for the opportunity to come together. One participant was quoted in the Sentinel, "I'm here because I got tired of sitting in my living room watching the news and seeing the atrocities happening in Gaza." We also had good coverage in Lookout Santa Cruz. One man reported that he came to the last day because his partner came home every day from the vigil feeling inspired.

In case you missed Friday's session, people watched a 9 minute video about Combatants for Peace, an organization of former Palestinian fighters and Israeli army veterans, collaborating for a just peace. If you're intrigued by Nonviolent Communication's approach to connecting across differences, check out my article, Beyond Moral Outrage. 

We'll continue to send you updates by email. If you would like to join the email list-serve, click HERE.

We reviewed the goals for the vigil:

1. Attract public and media attention to the gap between Rep. Panetta’s unwavering support for the Israeli government and arm's industry and the public’s cry for a permanent ceasefire and a just peace. 
2. Build the network of organized pro-peace advocates in the congressional district.
3. Build our spirits in the process of nonviolent action. 

The group affirmed that we want to continue to increase public awareness of Panetta's record. There was support for broadening the focus on Panetta's support for militarism in addition to Gaza. We affirmed the goal to network broadly and to continue designing our actions to build community.

We formed a sub-committee to develop the variety of ways to act, as well as how to frame our requests of Panetta. Among the actions discussed: encouraging community groups to meet with Panetta; continuing the vigil with art, food and music; organizing a presence at his public appearances; holding a regional event; laying groundwork for a future electoral challenge; exploration of civil disobedience; street theater; working to shift labor support for Panetta; further research on his record; elevate views of opinion leaders such as Bill Monning; working with people in other parts of Panetta's district. We also formed a subcommittee to explore civil disobedience. A group will meet to consider a presence at the Labor Day picnic. 

“Anti-Semitism” Attacks on UAW and Other Unions Seek to Curb Democratic Union Power

STATEMENT BY OFFICERS OF THE UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO AND MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA, UE

AUG. 11, PITTSBURGH — In the face of rising working-class militancy, anti-union forces have launched various legal attacks on the labor movement, using the false claim that union involvement in protests demanding a ceasefire in Gaza is somehow “anti-Semitic.” Most prominently, the federal monitor charged with rooting out corruption in the United Auto Workers has engaged in wildly inappropriate behavior, in a clear attempt to use his immense legal power over the union to shut down their criticism of Israel. The National Right to Work Committee and union-busting law firms like Jones Day have also launched a series of legal cases, including some against UE locals, aimed at undermining union shop and exclusive representation. 

On Dec.13, a little under two weeks after the UAW released a statement calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the union, Neil Barofsky, made a phone call to UAW President Shawn Fain, urging him to reconsider the union’s position. In February, Barofsky sent a letter to the UAW executive board reiterating his criticism of the union’s position, and also brought it up in a virtual meeting with the executive board on Feb. 19.

Barofsky was appointed in 2021 as part of a consent decree between the union and the federal government, stemming from rampant corruption under previous UAW leadership. In his role, Barofsky has extensive power to oversee all aspects of the union’s operation, including the power to impose discipline on UAW officers and members. The current leadership of the union was elected to reform the union; they have democratized the UAW and led important and militant fights, and have in fact worked closely with the monitor to root out corruption. 

The consent decree which gives Barofsky authority over the union charges him with “remov[ing] fraud, corruption, illegal behavior, dishonesty, and unethical practices” from the union. Nothing in this mandate is applicable to the union’s position calling for a ceasefire, a position voted on by an executive board elected through a democratic process overseen by Barofsky himself. 

After the union refused to change its position and sent Barofsky a letter raising concerns that he was acting outside of his jurisdiction, Barofsky opened a new investigation into the union and demanded that the union turn over more than one hundred thousand documents, including communications that could potentially expose the union’s internal plans for taking on corporations. 

The attacks on labor over positions on Israeli policy towards Palestinians are not limited to the UAW, however. In July, a lawsuit against the Professional Staff Congress, the union representing faculty and professional staff of the City University of New York, was appealed to the Supreme Court. The National Right to Work Committee, which is providing legal counsel in the case, seeks to further weaken public-sector unions by asking the Supreme Court to eliminate the principle of exclusive representation. If exclusive representation is eliminated, then employers will be free to reward non-members with higher wages and other perks. This would further undermine public-sector unions, which are already suffering under the effects of the 2018 Janus decision outlawing union shop in the public sector. Two UE locals have also been the target of legal actions making false claims of anti-Semitism to attempt to undermine the union shop in the private sector, instigated by the National Right to Work Committee and the notorious union-busting law firm Jones Day. 

These lawsuits, like the UAW monitor’s attack on that union, are justified by personal differences of opinion with positions taken by the union’s democratically-elected leadership, or in some cases by the membership as a whole. However, in a democracy, differences should be resolved, not by lawsuits, but by persuasion. UE has never taken action against a member for holding an opinion which differs from the union’s policy. Indeed, the preamble to our constitution directs us to unite all workers regardless not only of “craft, age, sex, nationality, race, [and] creed,” but also of “political beliefs,” and we encourage robust discussion of the union’s policies through our democratic structures. 

It is ironic that several of these legal assaults alleging that criticisms of Israel’s military actions constitute “anti-Semitism” are being supported by the National Right to Work Committee, an organization whose history is steeped in actual prejudice against Jewish people. Vance Muse, the lobbyist who was central to the passage of so-called “right-to-work” laws throughout the country in the 1940s, was both a rabid anti-Semite and a committed white supremacist. His organization, the Christian American Association, sought to portray CIO unions like UE and UAW as agents of “Jewish Marxism” — precisely because our organizations united workers regardless of race, creed, and political beliefs. 

It is not an accident that these attacks are specifically targeting unions which are growing, leading militant struggles, and daring to take independent positions on U.S. foreign policy. In this and in many other ways, they resemble the attacks on the progressive wing of the labor movement in the 1940s and 1950s when the unions which were growing, leading militant struggles, and taking independent positions on U.S. foreign policy were tarred as “communist-dominated” and subjected to government persecution — all of which only aided the corporations. The attacks on so-called “anti-Semitism” are nothing more than a new McCarthyism. 

Just as we have always rejected any attempts by the government, corporations or special interests to dictate UE policy, we forcefully condemn the attempts by the federal monitor to influence the policies of the UAW, and to retaliate against them for taking a courageous and just stand for peace. We urge the court which appointed Barofsky to replace him with a monitor who will not exceed his authority. 

More broadly, we condemn the cynical misuse of claims of anti-Semitism to attack union security and exclusive representation. We call upon the rest of the labor movement to close ranks against these attacks on exclusive representation, on the union shop, and on the right of unions to democratically take policy positions independent of the government or any political party. 

Signed by UE Officers, Carl Rosen, General President, Andrew Dinkelaker, and Secretary-Treasurer, Mark Meinster, Director of Organization 

Editor's Note: This article was forwarded to me from Watsonvillian Amy Newell who served 22 years with UE, the last 9 years as General Secretary-Treasurer of the national union, before retiring to move back to Watsonville. Her parents,

Charles and Ruth Newell, were among the founders of the UE during the huge CIO organizing drives of the 1930s and 1940s. Amy is she is delighted and proud that the next generation of UE leaders are carrying on the union’s tradition of militancy and political independence.

Lawsuit Against Proposed Auxiliary Lanes

BY RICK LONGINOTTI

In March 2024, the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against Caltrans regarding the Environmental Impact Report for proposed auxiliary lanes (exit-only lanes) in Aptos, from State Park Drive to Freedom Boulevard.

There are three important reasons to stop this project:

1. The project will not achieve congestion relief on Hwy 1. In the words of former Executive Director of the Regional Transportation Commission, Linda Wilshusen, “The data in the Draft EIR itself demonstrates no sustained traffic-relief benefit from this Project."

2. The auxiliary lanes will result in the destruction of over 1,100 trees in Aptos, among them many beautiful redwoods.

3. The $180 million earmarked for this project could be better spent on improving our transit system and improving safety on our streets. Santa Cruz County has the 2nd worst rate of injuries to bicyclists and 5th worst rate of injuries to pedestrians out of 58 California counties.

Our lawsuit petition  points out that the Caltrans EIR:

• Failed to analyze or mitigate increased vehicle miles traveled resulting from the project.
• 
  
• Failed to analyze any alternatives to the project, including a genuine bus-on-shoulder express bus service.
• 
  
• Relies on a Tier I EIR (Master EIR for auxiliary lanes from Santa Cruz to Freedom Blvd) that the court invalidated in 2022 in response to our lawsuit.

See my 20-minute video Why Auxiliary Lanes Won't Work.

You can contribute online or to CFST, Box 7927, Santa Cruz, 95061.

Ed. note: The links on the poster above don't function.

CARTOON BY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

Love Dances

BY WOODY REHANEK

In the bird's lush warbling

with sun oozing from leaf & frond...

Where hawks wheel in pure shafts of sunlight

& the sun glints off their wings like gold...

Love Dances

Where pure color fastens its eloquent rainbows

in the silent moss of trees, billowing silver...

Where sunbird silhouettes etch against 

the dying sky, circling round the moon...

Love Dances

When the moon ricochets, bruising 

winedark waters with silver wavelengths 

& 2-dimensional cloud panels 

waltz past one another...

Love Dances

Where bougainvillea climbs a plaster wall

& dovetails with the burnished sky...

In the currents & vectors of love, where old

patterns splice with brand new frequencies...

Love Dances   

******

San Francisco Mime Troupe's 65th production, American Dreams Comes to Santa Cruz, Sept. 7, 3pm, at London Nelson, 301 Center St. Santa Cruz

For a limited time, from Aug. 13 to Sept. 8, 11:59pm, PDT, audiences around the country and the world will be able to watch this critically-acclaimed original play American Dreams for free on Vimeo.

Visit VIMEO to watch FREE until Sept. 8.

To access for FREE use promo code: powertothepeople

Tip - enter code before logging your personal info.

Though free, we encourage you to make a 

suggested donation of $20.

And help us share this play we created -for the people with the people, wherever they live,by forwarding this email to 10 friends!

Photo by TARMO HANNULA 

Grackles keep watch from a perch on a barbed wire fence along Hwy 71 in Texas.

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Santa Cruz County Covid-19 Report - Rt stays above 1 for 13 Weeks

By SARAH RINGLER

The California Department of Public Health and Santa Cruz County Health Department regularly release data on the current status of Covid-19 in the county as well as information on influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), and Mpox. Since cases of Covid are still appearing, and there are still vulnerable people, I will continue reporting the graphs below.

The three graphs below were updated on Aug. 14.

The first graph is the Effective Reproductive Number. When the line rises above one, it shows that the spread of the virus is increasing. Below one means the spread is decreasing. Last week it appeared the Rt was dropping below 1.0 but when this week's graph was released, the number stayed above 1.0.

The second graph below shows data that the Health Department collects for Covid from wastewater at the City Influent, for the city of Santa Cruz, and from the Lode Street pump stations for the county.



The third graph below shows hospitalizations.

Photo TARMO HANNULA

Fashion Street — Classic VW Beetles file along the main drag in downtown Zacatecas, Mexico.

Labor History Calendar - Aug. 16-22, 2024

a.k.a Know Our History Lest We Forget

Aug. 16, 1920: Chicago Central Labor Union votes for general strike, if needed, to block the war with Russia.

Aug. 16, 1912: South African police kill 34 striking Marikana miners. 

Aug. 17, 1918: IWW War Trials in Chicago; 95 go to prison for up to 20 years.

Aug. 17, 1985: Hormel meatpackers’ strike begins in Austin, Minnesota.

Aug. 17. 2011: “Guest” student worker who bought jobs for thousands of dollars begin sit-in strike at Hershey’s chocolates.

Aug. 18, 1994: Nigerian government seizes oil workers’ union offices and installs new officers. 

Aug. 18, 2006: General strike demands government resign in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Aug. 18, 2020: General strike against election fraud and repression fails in Belarus.

Aug. 19, 1909: First edition of IWW Little Red Songbook.

Aug. 19, 1933: Boss press laments women pickets’ effectiveness in 4th day of California beet, strike – many arrests.

Aug. 19, 2022: London transit closed by strikers demanding living wage from privatized rail network.

Aug. 20, 1909: IWW free speech fight in Fresno, California.

Aug. 21, 1831: Nat Turner leads slave revolt in Virginia.

Aug. 21, 1918: 150,000 Yorkshire coal miners begin two-day strike.

Aug. 21, 2018: US prisoners strike against prison conditions and slave wages.

Aug. 22, 1791: Slave uprising begins Revolution in Haiti.

Aug. 22, 1916: IWW free-speech fight begins in Everett, Washington.

Labor History Calendar has been published yearly by the Hungarian Literature Fund since 1985.

"It is ironic that several of these legal assaults alleging that criticisms of Israel’s military actions constitute “anti-Semitism” are being supported by the National Right to Work Committee, an organization whose history is steeped in actual prejudice against Jewish people."

Carl Rosen, Andrew Dinkelaker and Mark Meinster, officers from the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of American Union

(See article above)

Photo by TARMO HANNULA

Gado Gado

By SARAH RINGLER 

Gado-Gado is an Indonesian dish that has become a mainstay for vegetarians. This recipe is from a 1977 copy of Mollie Katzen’s, “Moosewood Cookbook,” The Moosewood Restaurant, from which the recipes evolved, is in Ithaca, New York, and opened in 1972. Moosewood is still operating today and now also produces pre-prepared organic frozen soups, entrees and refrigerated soups.

Gado-gado is a rice dish that is topped with fresh, steamed vegetables over which a peanut sauce is poured. Fresh toppings are then added on top of that. It is a one-dish meal.

Although you can use water or vegetable stock, a rich stock adds a lot more flavor. The key ingredients to a rich vegetable stock are yams or sweet potatoes, lots of onions and celery.

3-4 cups cooked basmati rice

Steamed or cooked toppings for the rice:

Shredded cabbage

Sliced carrots

Celery slices

Broccoli spears

Green beans

Sautéed firm tofu, 8 ounces or more

Chopped hard boiled egg

To sauté the tofu, first wash, dry and set on a clean dishtowel to dry out. Cut into bite size pieces about 1 by 2 centimeters and about ½ centimeter thick. Heat a fry pan over medium heat. Add about 1to 2 tablespoons peanut or corn oil. Spread around the pan. Add the tofu squares tossing as they become golden on all sides. Sprinkle with a little salt. Do not overcook. You want a little golden crust on the outside but still tender inside. Put aside and keep warm.

Fresh toppings for rice:

Mung bean sprouts

Raisins

Sunflower seeds

Apples cut into bite size pieces

Toasted sesame seed oil

Sauce:

1 cup chopped onions

2 medium crushed garlic cloves

1 cup peanut butter

1 tablespoon honey

¼ teaspoons cayenne pepper or more to taste

juice of one lemon

1-2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger root

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

3 cups vegetable stock or water

salt to taste

dash of tamari

2 tablespoons butter

To make the sauce, melt the butter and cook the onions, garlic, bay leaf and ginger in a medium saucepan. When the onion becomes translucent, add the remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Simmer on the lowest possible heat for 30 minutes.

Vegie Stock

Carrots

Celery 

Sweet potatoes or yam

Potatoes 

Onion skins and ends from 4 to 6 onions

Parsley

Dried mushrooms are optional

Fresh water

You may use the peelings or ends of these vegetables or just chop them up and put them in a saucepan or stockpot. Cover the vegetables with twice the amount of fresh water. Bring to a boil and simmer for about an hour. Strain and use. Can be frozen. 

Send your story, poetry or art: Please submit a story, poem or photo of your art that you think would be of interest to the people of Santa Cruz County. Try and keep the word count to around 400. Also, there should be suggested actions if this is a political issue. Submit to coluyaki@gmail.com

Send comments to coluyaki@gmail.com

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Thanks, Sarah Ringler