North Adams Regional announces job cuts
<http://www.thetranscript.com/Stories/0,1002,9049%257E207763,00.html>
by Karen Gardner, North Adams Transcript, November 02, 2001
NORTH ADAMS -- Citing continued financial losses reflective of the entire state, as well as Medicaid under-funding, the parent company of North Adams Regional Hospital said it will cut the equivalent of 26.5 full-time positions at the hospital by month's end. With the Thursday announcement of staff reductions came word of an emergency department expansion, in part to accommodate an increasing pool of uninsured individuals who can't afford to go to a doctor. ...
NARH nurses say cuts 'unsafe'
by Bill Carey, Berkshire Eagle, November 03, 2001
NORTH ADAMS -- Registered nurses employed by North Adams Regional Hospital warned starkly last night that proper patient care cannot be guaranteed with job reductions planned by the hospital.
A dozen nurses represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association gathered in the foyer of the Notre Dame Parish School to protest the job reductions contained in a wide-ranging "transformation" announced Thursday by John C.J. Cronin, CEO of Northern Berkshire Health Systems, the hospital's parent company.
© 1999-2001 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and New England Newspapers, IncSpecial Sections
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Karen Higgins Elected President of Massachusetts Nurses Association
CANTON, Mass. - Karen Higgins, RN, a resident of Weymouth and a critical care nurse at Boston Medical Center, has been elected president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. The MNA, with more than 20,000 members, is the largest association of registered nurses and health care professionals and the largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Higgins, who is the 36th president in the MNA's 98-year history, will serve a two-year term of office. She brings more than 25 years experience in nursing and as many years of service to MNA to her position as MNA president. Higgins holds a diploma in nursing from Quincy City Hospital School of Nursing and an associate¹s in nursing from Quincy Junior College.
Higgins has spent her entire nursing career as a front-line caregiver and staff nurse at Boston Medical Center, where she began her career in 1975. She currently works in Boston Medical Center's Cardiac Care/Intensive Care Unit.
An outspoken critic of the current health care system and its impact on nurses and patients, Higgins brings a wealth of experience as a leader and spokesperson within the MNA on a variety of issues. For the last five years, Higgins was the elected leader of the MNA's Cabinet for Labor Relations, the union of the MNA, where she directed activities for more than 85 MNA local bargaining units throughout the state. During her tenure as head of the MNA union, Higgins oversaw a number of successful union organizing drives, resulting in eight elections for MNA representation, including victories at Somerville Hospital, St. Vincent Hospital and Certified Nursing Services in Worcester, Northeast Health Systems in Beverly, VNA Hospice Alliance in Western Massachusetts, Worcester Public Health Nurses Association, and UMass Memorial Health Care. This included the MNA's first organizing foray outside of the state, where the MNA organized nurses at Valley Regional Health Care, a hospital and home health agency in Claremont, New Hampshire.
Higgins also helped manage two highly successful strikes at St. Vincent Hospital and Brockton Hospital, which brought the issues of mandatory overtime and safe staffing to national attention.
For that same time period, Higgins co-chaired the MNA's Statewide Campaign for Safe Care Steering Committee, a leadership body that oversaw a statewide public relations and legislative action campaign to improve nurse staffing and increase patient's access to nursing care, as well as mobilized a statewide effort by the nursing community to pressure the Board of Registration of Nursing to improve its treatment of front-line nurses, while holding nursing administrators to greater accountability for their decisions.
In response to the burgeoning nursing shortage, Higgins led MNA efforts to address the issue by promoting the creation of, and then chairing, the MNA Nursing Shortage Task Force. The group was one of the first in the nursing community to prepare comprehensive, multi-pronged agenda to address the nursing shortage. She also was responsible for the formation of the MNA's Task Force on Workplace Violence, a group that has drawn state and national attention to this issue.
Finally, Higgins was a driving force behind MNA efforts to disaffiliate from the American Nurses Association in order to pursue an independent, more progressive agenda to address the crisis faced by nurses today.
According to MNA Executive Director Julie Pinkham, "Karen's greatest strength is her experience in the trenches on the front-lines of health care. She has a first hand understanding of the issues nurses face every day, and has never failed to bring that experience and understanding to her work as a leader and advocate for her profession. She has instant credibility, be it with her fellow nurses, legislators, the media, or the public, because it is clear she is speaking from her own personal experience on these crucial issues."
Among her priorities, Higgins is clear that passage of legislation to mandate safe registered nurse-to-patient ratios in our health care facilities is the overriding concern of the MNA membership, as well as the entire nursing community. The MNA has filed and is promoting passage of HB 1186, An Act to Ensure Sufficient Nurse Staffing for Safe Patient Care.
"When you talk about the problems confronting health care today, be it ER diversions, the nursing shortage, the rise in preventable medical errors, mandatory overtime, they all come down to one root cause - inadequate staffing, specifically, unsafe registered nurse-to-patient ratios that compromise patient care and drive nurses out of the profession," Higgins said.
"Unless and until nurses can practice their profession safely, we will continue to see a rapid deterioration in the quality of patient care and a continued exodus of nurses from the bedside. We must fix this problem, and the MNA is committed to using all of its resources to making that happen."
Higgins will also take charge of a newly constituted MNA which, as an independent organization, is embarking on efforts to work with other like-minded nurse's associations and unions to create a new national nursing entity that will provide a strong and progressive national voice for nurses across the country. Work is underway to form a new national nurses¹ organization, including the MNA, the California Nurses Association, Maine State Nurses Association, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals and the United Health Care Workers of Greater Saint Louis.
"One of my goals for my first term is to help establish a new national nurse's organization that is responsive to the needs of front-line staff nurses and those that support them in that role, a national organization that is committed to a progressive agenda to confront the health care and insurance industries so that nurses all across this country can practice safely with dignity and respect."
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MNA Testifies at Health Care Committee Oversight Hearing on Bioterrorism Preparedness
The Joint Committee on Health Care held oversight hearings on bioterrorism preparedness for the Commonwealth. The Committee invited the MNA to provide testimony on this issue from a nursing perspective. Below is the text of testimony delivered by MNA President Karen Higgins.
October 29, 2001
My name is Karen Higgins, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. It is a pleasure to be here this afternoon. On behalf of the 20,000 members of the MNA, I commend the Health Care Committee for holding this most important hearing. We applaud Senator Moore for his work on this issue and his efforts in filing the Commonwealth Anti-Terrorism Council legislation.
The MNA represents registered nurses on the front-line of today's health care delivery system - in our acute care settings, our emergency rooms, medical surgical floors, step-down units, public health settings and schools. Each and every day they work tirelessly to care for the citizens of our Commonwealth. In too many cases, they carry out this work in conditions that are not suitable to provide the level of care they have been trained and licensed to perform. They are working with a fragile system that continues to wring out those on the front-line, thereby exacerbating the problem.
So as we begin this discussion today, I urge you all to understand our caution and concern for the health care system as we see it everyday. To be quite honest, we have serious concerns as to whether this system as currently constituted, could withstand the stresses of a typical flu epidemic, never mind a major bioterrorist attack. It is important to note that prior to Sept. 11th, a DPH task force on ER diversions was seriously considering activating the National Guard to work in ER's to address a flu outbreak. This only makes the point that under current staffing conditions, our acute care system is already in a state of crisis that demeans the care and causes undue suffering to patients of Massachusetts right now. Furthermore, activating the National Guard to address the pre or post Sept. 11th health care crisis is not the way to address this problem.
If you expect to use the acute care system, as it is today to care and treat for bioterrorism, I think we need to pause with caution. The nurses on the front-line, at the bedside and in the emergency rooms don't think we are prepared. We must continue and expand our efforts to address the current crisis in health care, while at the same time implementing new strategies to prepare for the advent of a bioterrist threat.
First of all, we must acknowledge that, as most agree, we are in a new world now, not to mention that we are proposing to engage the health care system in an undeclared war. Our first priority is to make sure that those in the health care system understand the ramifications of this threat, are thoroughly trained and educated as to their roles and responsibilities, and provided with the opportunity to participate in this process. Will nurses rise to the occasion? There is no doubt. But we owe it to nurses and other front-line providers to do the planning and education and coordination to allow them to feel safe in the process. This includes ensuring that these front-line providers are properly immunized and provided with th protections and precautions that are necessary.
I believe we need a strong and renewed commitment to our fragile health care, acute care and public health system.
I offer a number of things the Health Care Committee may wish to explore:
Implementation of comprehensive training of nurses throughout the state: The Massachusetts Nurses Association currently administers training for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner program, a successful program that creates the coordinated, expert forensic care necessary to increase prosecution of sexual offenders and to deliver the highest level of care to sexual assault victims accessing hospital emergency department. The SANE certified professionals are specially trained to perform forensic medical-legal exams in the cases of rape and sexual assault. The MNA has also worked with the Mass. Coalition on the Prevention of Medical Errors to develop a training program for nurses on how to prevent errors. In little over a year, MNA has conducted training programs at more than 60 facilities across the state. I propose a similar program to train registered nurses throughout the state in the detecting, monitoring and treatment of bioterrorism. While I am proud to offer the assistance of the MNA in this effort, the program could be done with or through the Massachusetts Public Health Association or DPH.
Creation of Volunteer Emergency Nurse Corps: Committee members, there are thousands of nurses not practicing at the bedside today because of the conditions they must work under. According to a recent report at the National Conference on State Legislatures, Massachusetts has the highest level of registered nurses per capita in the nation. We must tap this resource. This 'reserve' of nurses must be prepared and trained to assist in a crisis of the magnitude we are discussing today. We recommend funding for a volunteer emergency nurse corps, where nurses could be recruited to undergo training for response and treatment after a bioterrorist attack. They could receive training and be placed in a database, where they could be easily identified and called into service in a time of crisis, with the skills and understanding of protocols that tie into a statewide disaster relief plan. Again, the MNA would be happy to work the DPH to participate in the recruitment and training required for this effort.
Dramatic Increases in funding for public health: We also believe there is a need for a dramatic increase in funding for our public health infrastructure with an emphasis on increasing funding to municipalities and their public health departments, so that they are prepared to participate in effective early monitoring and detection efforts. These departments need increase staff, improved training for staff and improvements in technology and resources to carry out their duties.
Increased funding for school nurses and an expanded role for school nurses in emergency planning: I agree with our colleagues at the Massachusetts School Nurses Organization that school nurses are vitally important in this effort. Registered nurses working in our schools are in prime positions to detect the early warning signs of bioterrorism. Over 2100 registered nurses work in our public and private schools thus giving us the capability to recognize symptoms, deliver care and conduct mass immunization programs in the schools and communities. No other facility or agency, including the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, has this ability. These nurses are also first responders and part of the emergency teams in their communities. Massachusetts has been viewed by the rest of the country as a leader in providing health services to our school children. Registered nurses in schools are part of every school system's emergency plan and should be part of our emergency planning as well.
Utilizing non-operational health care facilities as center's for treatment and isolation of victims: Finally, as to housing and treating large populations of victims of a bioterrorist attack, we recommend the state look into preparing and utilizing many of the now non-operational state facilities as center's for treatment. There are also many unused licensed beds and floors within our system that could be placed on readiness for an emergency, and staffed with nurses from the volunteer emergency nurse corps. Again, as currently constituted, our acute care system is ill prepared to house and treat the influx of patients that would result from an attack, and there are serious issues with isolating patients in a system overburdened with our current patient population.
Again, we look forward to working with the Health Care Committee and the Legislature in addressing these issues and carrying our mission, which is to care for the sick.
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Statement
<http://www.nursesunions.ca/na/stcomfin11012001.shtml>
Kathleen Connors, RN, President, Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions
The Parliament of Canada, House of Commons
Pre-Budget Hearings, Standing Committee on Finance
Chairman Maurizio Bevilacqua, MP
1 November 2001
Good morning, Mr Chairman and members of the Committee:
You have our brief which was submitted in August. I have only a few remarks to add. While our health care system at $77 billion is, indeed, complex, the major solutions to the system¹s ills are quite straightforward. I want to speak as plainly as I can. Our system literally stands between thousands of our citizens and certain death. It stands for health and for hope too. ...
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Maine resolution seeks Canada-style health care system
<http://www.telegram.com/news/inside/mehealth.html>
The Associated Press, November 2, 2001
PORTLAND, Maine-- A campaign to make Maine the first state with universal health care faces an important test of public opinion next week amid a TV ad blitz being waged against the idea by the insurance industry.
A nonbinding resolution on Tuesday's ballot in Portland calls on the city to encourage government-run health care for everyone.
Maine already has experimented with ways to cut health care costs and expand coverage. The state forced drug discounts under threat of price controls, and it obtained a federal Medicaid waiver that allows it to raise the minimum incomes that determine eligibility for discounted drugs.
Duncan Wright, a Portland psychiatrist helping to run the campaign for universal health care, suggested Maine is a good candidate to lead the way.
³We're a rural state. We're not wealthy, but we have a humane political tradition. I think we can do it. We can be the first,² he said.
A study last year concluded that 165,000 Maine residents -- 13 percent -- lack health insurance and that the state's percentage of uninsured adults is the highest in New England.
Saying private insurance is unfair and inefficient, reformers say they believe Portland can send a strong message in support of a Canadian-style, single-payer system that provides comprehensive, high-quality care for everyone.
Under a single-payer plan, a public agency would collect health care premiums and pay bills for all state residents.
©2001 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.
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Anthem spending to fight referendum angers critics
<http://www.portland.com/news/local/011102anthem.shtml>
by John Richardson, Portland Press Herald, November 2, 2001
Backers of state-run health insurance criticized Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Thursday for almost singlehandedly financing a $400,000 campaign against Portland's advisory referendum at a time when the company is asking for major rate increases. Anthem officials offered no apology for the spending, saying they are obligated to warn voters about Tuesday's referendum and that the expenses won't be passed on to customers. As of Monday, the state's largest insurer had spent $381,803 on the campaign, mostly for advertisements urging Portland residents to vote no. Nadine Turcotte of the Consumers for Affordable Health Care Foundation said it's irresponsible of Anthem, especially at a time when it is planning to increase premiums an average of 13.6 percent to 31.7 percent. ...
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COME TO THE HISTORIC NADER ³GLOBAL JUSTICE² SUPER RALLY
On November 10th, Ralph Nader's "People Have The Power Tour" will have a Global Justice Super Rally at the Orpheum Theatre, being held in conjuction with the Northeast Regional Student Conference Against War and Racism at Boston University, Nov 10-11. This will be the fifth event of a brand new tour to help re-vitalize American democracy, build a long-lasting progressive movement and fight for global justice.
The rally, which starts @ 7:30 PM, will also provide a tremendous boost to local campaigns organizing for international human rights, universal health care, and Massachusetts publicly-funded elections. Doors open @ 6:00 PM. The rally will feature appearances by national entertainers, activist-celebrities & community leaders.
TICKET INFORMATION: $15.00 at the Door; $12.00 Advanced.
To purchase tickets visit: <http://www.democracyrising.org> or call 617 627 9955.
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On November 14th ... Defend the Charleston 5!
Five longshore workers in Charleston SC are facing up to five years in prison on bogus "felony riot" charges. The longshoremen were part of a peaceful picket line defending their jobs from scab labor when over 600 state police in riot gear attacked them.
The longshore local in Charleston - ILA Local 1422 - is a major leader inthe progressive movement in South Carolina. The police attack took place just days after an historic march to demand removal of the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina State Capitol. Local 1422 played amajor role in helping to organize and turn out for the march.
The first day of the dockworkers' trial is on November 14th. The Longshoremen's union has called for broad actions around the world demonstrating our solidarity. An injury to one - the unfair persecution of union members in South Carolina - is an injury to all.
(Red line to South Station, walk one block towards the
waterfront on Atlantic Ave and right on Congress Street)
Endorsed by: AFT Local 1037; Coalition of Black Trade Unionists; Greater Boston Labor Council; Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Local 26; IUE/CWA Local 201; Mass. Chapter Labor Council for Latin American Advancement; North Shore Labor Council; Painters & Allied Trades District Council #35; Women's Institute for Leadership Development; George Cashman, Pres. Teamsters Local 25; Ed Clark and Martie Voland, N.E. Joint. Bd. UNITE; Steve Early, Intl. Rep., District 1, CWA; Mark Erlich, N.E. Regional Council of Carpenters; Jerry Fishbein, UNITE; Karen Higgins, Pres. MNA; Elly Leary, UAW Local 2324; Bill McNamara, VP, Intl. Longshore Assoc.; Dick Monks, VP, IUOE Local 877; Bernie O'Donnell, VP, Intl. Longshore Assoc.; Chuck Turner, Boston City Council; Celia Wcislo, Pres. SEIU Local 285.
Send donations to the Dockworkers Defense Fund, 910 Morrison Dr., Charleston, SC 29403.
For more information, call Jobs with Justice Solidarity Committee (617) 524-8778.
A lesson in the wake of September 11
<http://www.calnurse.org/cna/calnursesepoct01/kayed.html>
by Kay McVay, RN, CNA President
With the tragic events that occurred in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania came a sorrow so deep that many may never recover. Our lives will not be the same, ever. The loss of over 6,000 lives in one cruel, criminal act has left most of us angry, bewildered and reflective on the state of the world around us and our place in it. Many lessons will be drawn in the wake of the current crisis. One of them will relate to the state of our nation's healthcare delivery system and the changes it has undergone over recent years. ...
Another lesson
<http://www.calnurse.org/cna/calnursesepoct01/raded.html>
by Rose Ann DeMoro, CNA Executive Director
Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, director general of the World Health Organization, observed last year that "the health and well-being of people around the world depend critically on the performance of the health systems that serve them." ...
Australian nurses' message on staffing ratios comes to California
<http://www.calnurse.org/cna/calnursesepoct01/austrn.html>
The union movement "should be about more than just salary and benefits," says Belinda Morieson, RN. She illustrates this principle by detailing how the nurses organization she heads went about winning the first legally mandated nurse-to-patient staffing ratio anywhere. That accomplishment, and its ramifications in improving the quality of patient care, have captured the imagination of nurses across her native Australia and around the world, fueling their determination to raise the issue of staffing ratios to a new level. ...
Entire Town Joins Nurses' Strike
<http://workers.labor.net.au/118/news42_nurses.html>
by Laura MacFarlane, LaborNET
The first industrial action since the Shearer's strike of the 1890's happened in Tottenham, NSW (population: 390), when their nurses rallied on October 18.
While 5000 nurses marched on Parliament house in Sydney the 11 nurses of Tottenham marched down the main street to the hospital. Paige Kildare, the only full time registered nurse at the 10 bed, 24 hour a day, 7 days a week facility commented when asked if the rally caused a disruption, "The town's policeman couldn't redirect traffic because he's on holidays!" ...
Nurses union calls for Premier to address health sector problems
<http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/qld/archive/metqld-1nov2001-6.htm>
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1 Nov 2001
The Queensland Nurses Union has written to the Premier and Health Minister this week, asking them to urgently address what it calls serious problems in the health sector. Union state secretary Gay Hawksworth says there are about a dozen issues which nurses want the Government to act on. ...
Workers in concerted action call for peace, job security and better medical system
<http://www.japan-press.co.jp/2258/workers.html>
Some 12,000 workers demonstrated all day long through the government office district on October 24, chanting opposition to corporate restructuring, adverse revision of the medical services system, and deregulation. The "Angry workers' action in Kasumigaseki" was organized by the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren). ...
New York hospital worker with inhalation anthrax dies
<http://www.nandotimes.com/front/story/161235p-1531740c.html>
by Jim Fitzgerald, Associated Press
NEW YORK (October 31, 2001 3:01 p.m. EST) - A hospital worker with a mysterious case of inhalation anthrax died early Wednesday. It was the nation's fourth fatality in a month of bioterrorism. Kathy T. Nguyen, 61, died three days after checking herself into Lenox Hill Hospital and being diagnosed as New York City's first case of the inhaled form of the disease. ...
Now, ŒWTC Syndrome¹
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/648819.asp?cp1=1>
by David France, Newsweek, November 5, 2001
New York-area physicians have begun seeing a series of illnesses among emergency workers and others who were trapped in the dense plumes of dust and debris on Sept. 11 after the Twin Towers collapsed. Dubbed World Trade Center Syndrome, the ailments range from unrelenting coughs and sinus infections to posttraumatic stress and acute lung traumas, including severe asthma requiring mechanical respiration. ...
Threats expose health care problems
<http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sandiego/index.html>
(enter title, Threats expose health care problems, into the search box)
by Jamie Court, Kay McVay & Steve Thompson, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Oct 30, 2001
Abstract:
In a society subject to the spread of anthrax or small pox, there can be no distinction between public and private health care. Distinguishing between sick people deserving of health care and those not becomes irrelevant when everyone is at risk. Nor does it seem right to deny health coverage to the families of heroic Americans who perished in the World Trade Center towers, or the bombing survivors who lost their jobs, simply because they cannot pay. ...
Firefighters Protest at Ground Zero
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32563-2001Nov2.html>
by Katherine Roth, Associated Press, November 2, 2001
NEW YORK Hundreds of firefighters marched to ground zero and City Hall on Friday, some scuffling with police, in an emotional protest over Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's decision to scale back the number of workers searching for remains. Eleven firefighters and a union official were arrested. ...
Glendale Memorial nurses reach agreement
<http://latimes.com/tcn/glendale/news/la-gn0019024oct31.story>
by Karen S. Kim, Los Angeles Times, October 31, 2001
SOUTHWEST GLENDALE -- A tentative union contract for Glendale Memorial Hospital nurses has been established for the first time in the medical facility's history. "I'm not going to say it was easy, and I'm not going to say it was difficult," said Myrna Valmeo-Ogilvie, a registered nurse at Glendale Memorial who participated in the negotiations with a team of four fellow RNs. "We had our arguments, our good days and bad days, but then again, it's only been four months and usually it takes a year to get a first contract." ...
Bin Laden was treated in hospital, reports say
<http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=nurses&option=&start_row=8¤t_row=8&start_row_offset1=&num_rows=1&search_results_start=1>
Toronto Globe & Mail, October 31, 2001
Le Figaro, Paris. A report today says that Osama bin Laden underwent treatment in July at the American Hospital in Dubai, where he met with a CIA agent. Citing an unnamed source at the hospital, the report says the suspected terrorist arrived in Dubai on July 4 by air from Quetta, Pakistan, and was taken immediately to the hospital for kidney treatment, staying until July 14. During his stay he allegedly met an unidentified CIA agent, who was recalled to Washington on July 15, the report said. It said Mr. bin Laden was accompanied by a doctor, bodyguards and a nurse. - AFP
Copyright © 2001 Globe Interactive, a division of Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc.
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War Profiteering
by Wes Boyd, MoveOn, Oct 30, 2001
In this time of national crisis, amid calls for sacrifice, we're deeply troubled by the choices of the Republican party's right-wing leadership. Here's their idea of an economic stimulus package*:
$1.4 billion for IBM
$833 million for General Motors
$671 million for General Electric
$572 million for Chevron Texaco
$254 million for Enron
This is war profiteering, and it's just plain wrong. Yet the House has just approved it, on a virtual party line vote, ending the recent spirit of cooperation in Congress. Speak up with us before the Senate acts:
<http://www.moveon.org/warprofiteering>
Last week, while our nation was reeling from the Anthrax threat, the House voted to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax on corporations. This law normally requires hugely profitable companies to pay at least some tax, no matter how many loopholes they can find. Its repeal would allow many companies to pay zero US income tax in perpetuity - a loss of more than $12 billion in revenue next year alone.
The repeal is retroactive, so companies would get rebates of all the Alternative Minimum Tax they've paid for the last 15 years. The numbers above are a sampling of these rebates.
The House also voted to allow corporations to store their profits overseas as a tax shelter. That's right - this "stimulus" would actually take money out of the U.S. economy. It's backwards.
The right approach to stimulus is to put more money in the hands of everyday people who need it most - by expanding unemployment insurance, for example. People living marginally will spend it quickly on consumer goods, so it circulates through the economy, benefiting everyone.
Helping people would make economic sense. Giving billions in tax breaks to America's biggest corporations doesn't.
The Senate could vote on stimulus as early as this week. Speak up at:
<http://www.moveon.org/warprofiteering>
Thank you. We must all fight this together.
Sincerely,
Wes Boyd
MoveOn.org
October 29th, 2001
* Source: Citizens for Tax Justice. See our website for details.
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RAWA statement on the terrorist attacks in the US
On September 11, 2001 the world was stunned with the horrific terrorist attacks on the United States. RAWA stands with the rest of the world in expressing our sorrow and condemnation for this barbaric act of violence and terror. RAWA had already warned that the United States should not support the most treacherous, most criminal, most anti-democracy and anti-women Islamic fundamentalist parties because after both the Jehadi and the Taliban have committed every possible type of heinous crimes against our people, they would feel no shame in committing such crimes against the American people whom they consider "infidel". In order to gain and maintain their power, these barbaric criminals are ready to turn easily to any criminal force. ...
RAWA statement on the US strikes on Afghanistan
Again, due to the treason of fundamentalist hangmen, our people have been caught in the claws of the monster of a vast war and destruction. America, by forming an international coalition against Osama and his Taliban-collaborators and in retaliation for the 11th September terrorist attacks, has launched a vast aggression on our country. ...
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Bush Administration Considers 'War on People'
<http://sf.indymedia.org/2001/10/107581.php>
by Matthew Berliant, Indymedia, October 26, 2001
National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice announced yesterday that, in the interest of national security, the Bush Administration may be considering a major new campaign against people. ³People have long been a threat to our nation¹s freedom. In fact,² she said, ³They may even be the secret enemy lurking behind this most recent outbreak of international terrorism.² ...
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