Conditions spur exodus of nurses
WEYMOUTH - The newly elected Massachusetts Nurses Association president says better working conditions and higher staffing levels will continue to top its list of collective bargaining goals.
Stress and overwork are the main reasons nurses are leaving the stateıs hospitals, said Karen Higgins, 47, of Weymouth.
Higgins, a cardiac intensive care nurse at Boston Medical Center, said there may be more strikes if hospitals continue to require nurses to work overtime.
The number of older nurses expected to leave hospitals will also prove difficult to replace, she said, because the number of nursing school graduates is declining.
A Massachusetts Hospital Association survey found that already nearly 9 percent of hospital nursing jobs are unfilled. Experts who study the field still consider the level to be reasonable.
³Lots of nurses are getting out completely. They are finding opportunities in other fields,² Higgins said.
Staffing and mandatory overtime were central issues in the 103-day strike that ended Sept. 4 at Brockton Hospital, and in last yearıs 49-day strike at St. Vincentıs Hospital in Worcester.
³Hospitals have been cutting back because of money issues, and when they do this, the first thing they seem to go after are those who take care of patients,² Higgins said.
³Brockton and St. Vincentıs were horrific examples of staffs working under mandatory overtime rules. Overtime is cheaper that hiring nurses,² said Higgins.
³You will see the same scenario happen again. We will talk to hospitals about stopping the practice and if nothing happens, we may see nurses walking again,² she said.
Brockton Hospital Vice President Robert Hughes said there has been no mandatory overtime since the strike and that overtime is down 86 percent from this time last year.
Hughes said there is not a nursing shortage at Brockton Hospital.
Hughes and Richard Averbuch, of the Massachusetts Hospital Association, say hospitals cannot be blamed for all of the nursesı problems.
³In this changing health care system we are struggling to get the resources that we need. In Massachusetts, all payers are not paying 100 percent on the dollar,² Hughes said.
Hospitals are not receiving full payment for Medicaid or from the uncompensated care pool which pays for people without health insurance, Averbuch said.
Future collective bargaining issues with the nurses association will have a lot to do with whether hospitals receive the state funds to which they believe they are entitled.
There are proposals in the state Legislature to provide up to $35 million in Medicaid relief and as much as $171 for the pool to pay hospitals when patients cannot.
³The best thing we can do right now to improve work conditions for the nurses is for the state to give the system the financial resources it needs,² Averbuch said.
The nurses association is also pushing for legislation to regulate the number of patients nurses are required to care for.
³We donıt want a point-blank number. We hope to get a baseline so that on any given day if patients are sicker, the number of patients youıll attend to will be lower, since they will need more care,² Higgins said.
³Something like this could stop nurses from leaving and we hope start bringing them back,² she said.
Robert Sears may be reached at bsears@ledger.com.
BMC among few healthy hospitals in the state
by Jack Dew, Berkshire Eagle, November 08, 2001
PITTSFIELD -- Despite the ongoing fiscal pressure that hospitals around the state are facing, Berkshire Medical Center said yesterday that it operated in the black for the ninth consecutive fiscal year.
According to the Massachusetts Hospital Association, BMC is one of only six hospitals in the state to have a positive operating margin for every year since 1997, while more than half of 58 state hospitals surveyed lost money last year. The MHA described the situation as an "unprecedented, steady battering" of the industry.
Dwindling reimbursements from the state Medicaid and federal Medicare programs have forced a number of hospitals to slash operating expenses. The MHA said the state's hospitals lost $200 million last year because of Medicaid underfunding alone.
İ 1999-2001 by MediaNews Group, Inc. and New England Newspapers, IncSpecial Sections
School nurse layoffs expected statewide
<http://www.masslive.com/news/unionnews/index.ssf?/news/pstories/ae115nur.html>
by Mary Ellen O'Shea, Springfield Union-News, November 5, 2001
Damaris Santiago-Camacho expects to be out of a job soon, but the school nurse isn't worried about herself. One of just two Spanish-speaking school nurses in Springfield, she is thinking more of the children she works with and their families. "A good percentage of the population I deal with in the community are non-English speaking. Having nurses like me out there has made a big difference," she said. Santiago-Camacho is one of several hundred school nurses across the state likely to lose their jobs in the coming weeks thanks to a plan by acting Gov. Jane M. Swift to cut the Enhanced School Health Services grant to $6.1 million. The grant, aimed at providing nurses for private, parochial and charter schools, has been funded at an annual $16.1 million the past two years. Mary M. Zamorski, president of the Massachusetts School Nurses Association, said educators and nurses are lobbying hard for full funding for the fiscal year that began July 1. Budget deliberations have been stalled in the Statehouse. ...
School health grants hit hard
by Sue Reinert, The Patriot Ledger, November 12, 2001
The $97,000 state grant for school health seemed heaven-sent to Rockland school officials.
Earlier this year the financially pressed school system hired school nurses, added a clerk and developed anti-smoking and other programs, said head nurse Ann Phelps.
The public schools also used some of the money to help Holy Family School, a Catholic school in Rockland, computerize its student health records, she said.
Now, because of the state budget impasse, Rockland stands to lose $55,290 of that grant money, a 57 percent cut.
"After giving us this money to do all these wonderful things now we have to stop just like that in the middle of the school year," Phelps said.
"I feel the governor has really just put us back in the dark ages again," she said.
Two weeks ago the state Department of Public Health notified 109 school districts that their school health grants would drop 57 percent, effective immediately. Rockland and 11 other South Shore school districts were among those getting notice of the cut in state dollars.
Health Department spokeswoman Roseanne Pawelec said administration officials told the department there is no money for the program because the state has not adopted a budget.
The House and Senate recommended that the program remain at last year's $15.3 million appropriation, but acting Gov. Jane Swift wants to cut funding to $6.6 million.
Because of the uncertainty, state officials chose the governor's figure when they notified schools of the cut, Pawelec said.
Rockland will lay off the new clerk, who helped keep numerous records for the health program, Phelps said.
A nurse-leader who administered the school health system will go back to one of the schools part time, Phelps said. A full-time nurse will be limited to two days a week and may not be able to afford to stay, Phelps said.
Other South Shore school systems also face school health cutbacks. Braintree, Canton, Cohasset, Hanover, Milton, Plymouth, Quincy, Randolph, Stoughton, Weymouth and Whitman-Hanson also receive the school health grants.
Many have not figured out where to cut, but they are sure it will hurt. "We don't have any details but we know it will be devastating," said Janet Brooks, Weymouth coordinator of school health services.
In Braintree, school officials spent grant money to move nurses from part-time to full-time status, said health services coordinator Paula Dowd.
After two years of grants, all buildings except the kindergarten center have at least one full-time nurse, she said.
The school district also bought new scales, hearing and vision testing equipment and wheelchairs to replace antiquated gear that in some cases was more than 30 years old, she said.
Three private schools in Braintree - Archbishop Williams High School, St. Francis of Assisi School and the Cardinal Cushing Center - shared Braintree's allocation and increased school nurse staffing, Dowd said.
Braintree faces a reduction from $118,000 to $50,740. "We have not finalized any plans as to how the cuts will affect us" because school officials still hope the cuts won't be approved, Dowd said.
"My assumption is we would have a reduction in staff," she said.
Plymouth's grant will drop from $138,444 to $59,531. The new figure is less than the $68,000 the school district received three years ago, when it started the program, said Bob Sherman, director of pupil personnel.
"It's pretty draconian," he said. "... Right now if this cut goes through we're looking at losing the nurse-leader, one or two nurses and two aides."
Plymouth now employs 15 nurses, enough to have at least one full-time nurse in every building for the first time, Sherman said.
The lost state money means "we would need to go back to one nurse covering two buildings" in some cases, he said.
Plans to add programs this year in the areas of dental care and nutrition are also in doubt, Sherman said.
"This is a real tragedy because we finally got to a point with school health where a lot of things that had gone on the back burner were put out front," Sherman said.
School nurses say they don't get the attention they deserve. They not only administer first aid, but give out medications, perform immunizations and treat some severely disabled students who need their breathing tubes suctioned or catheters monitored.
"Being a school nurse is kind of like being a minihospital," Phelps said.
Nurses say Governor Swift is mistaken if she wants to reduce school health grants to free up money to defend against a terrorist attack. School nurses could serve a vital need in a bioterrorist attack, they say.
"If something like that is going to strike Massachusetts and if mass immunizations need to be done, what is a better place to do it but the schools?" said Judi McAuliffe, Pembroke school nurse and a former president of the Massachusetts School Nurses Organization.
However, the Republican administration has tried to cut the grant program before.
Last year former Gov. Paul Cellucci vetoed a legislative increase but the Legislature overrode the veto. In January, Cellucci announced that he intended to try again this year to reduce the program, by $10 million.
Program supporters were reassured when both chambers kept funding as it is. They still hope the Legislature will override any veto, but they are nervous about the timing.
When legislators return tomorrow , they will have only eight days left to hold formal sessions, and Swift has 10 days to review the budget. Unless a special session is convened after Thanksgiving, the Legislature will not have time to override any vetoes.
Leaders could call a special session to address the vetoes, but that is rare, observers say.
Sue Reinert may be reached at sreinert@ledger.com.
Copyright 2001 The Patriot Ledger
Bill could limit hours for medical residents
<http://www.boston.com/dailynews/314/region/Bill_could_limit_hours_for_med:.shtml>
by Associated Press, 11/10/2001
BOSTON (AP) A group of Democratic congressmen have introduced a bill that would set strict national limits on the number of hours that hospitals could require residents to work. The rules would hold doctors-in-training to the same kind of limits that govern truck drivers and airline pilots. The bill, introduced by U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, would limit resident work hours to at most 80 per week. It would also limit residents to shifts of no more than 24 consecutive hours in the hospital. It would guarantee one day off in seven, and one full weekend off each month. The bill was greeted by enthusiasm from some residents. ...
Limit the work hours of medical residents
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/317/oped/Limit_the_work_hours_of_medical_residents+.shtml>
by Michael Hochman, Ralph Vetters & Josh Rising, Boston Globe, 11/13/2001
LATE ONE spring evening in 1984, a young woman, Libby Zion, entered the emergency room at the New York Hospital. She was feverish and agitated. Eight hours later, she was dead. While the details surrounding her death remain a mystery, what is clear is that the resident physicians who cared for her were not adequately rested. Would Zion be alive today if her doctors had been more alert? No one knows. But Zion's case led to the first and only state regulations limiting the work hours of resident physicians. Last week, Democratic Representative John Conyers of Michigan introduced the Patient and Physician Safety and Protection Act of 2001, the first attempt at national legislation to regulate resident work hours. The bill is based on the New York state laws that resulted from the Libby Zion case - the Bell Laws. While the bill is debated in Congress, a smaller-scale debate is beginning in Massachusetts. On Friday, the American Medical Student Association will present a resolution to the Massachusetts Medical Society, calling for the society to support federal and state resident work-hour regulations. ...
VICTORY FOR THE CHARLESTON 5
by Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes
"It's over," Ken Riley told Labor Notes at 9:15 am on Thursday November 8th. An hour before, attorneys for the Charleston 5 had agreed that the 5 would plead no contest to a magistrate-level offense, walking away from their long ordeal with $100 fines.
Ever since South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon bowed out of the case a few weeks ago, hopes had been high that a negotiated settlement could be reached.
The statute under which the 5 are pleading uses the language riot, rout or affray. We're stressing the affray, Riley said. The statute also refers to no weapons being used and no wound inflicted.
"It's a tremendous victory, considering what we were stacked up against, said Riley. "Condon had called for 'jail, jail and more jail'. He even said he wanted these guys to be placed under the jail."
From that day to this there's been an all-out campaign to counter that type of aggression. We owe the victory to the unrelenting pressure of the movement.
The demonstrations and possible port shut-downs worldwide that had been planned for November 14 will be canceled, Riley said.
--from Labor Notes <http://www.labornotes.org>
From: Boston Jobs WIth Justice [mailto:bostonjwj@mindspring.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2001 4:52 PM
To: bostonjwj@mindspring.com
Subject: Charleston 5 -- Solidarity Victory Party
Victory!!!
Charges were dropped today against the Charleston 5!!! Let's give a big "Hooray!" for what solidarity organizing can win! The action planned for Nov. 14 will be canceled, but we hope you will join us that night in celebration!
Solidarity Victory Party at Green Street Grill
280 Green Street, Central Square, Cambridge
Wednesday, November 14, 5:00 - 6:30
Unions plan to rile fund-raiser
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/316/metro/Unions_plan_to_rile_fund_raiser+.shtml>
by Frank Phillips, Boston Globe, 11/12/2001
As national Democrats plan a star-studded fund-raiser here next week, party leaders face a classic Boston feud that threatens to spoil the event and scare away A-list politicians such as Bill Clinton. The bitter personal dispute between Massachusetts unions and a wealthy Newton couple, Gerald and Elaine Schuster, who have raised millions of dollars for Democrats, has tripped up party leaders, including Senator John F. Kerry and national chairman Terence R. McAuliffe, who are trying to broker peace. The Democratic National Committee hopes to collect well over $500,000 from the big-ticket event, which would feature Clinton's first speech in Boston since he left the White House. The union representing low-wage workers at a nursing home owned by Gerald Schuster said its members, angered by his refusal to allow workers at his Wilbraham facility to organize, will put up picket lines at the Park Plaza Hotel for the Nov. 20 fund-raiser to protest Elaine Schuster's cosponsorship of the event. ...
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Reno hospital nurses plan another one-day strike Nov. 21
<http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2001/nov/08/110810608.html>
November 08, 2001
Reno, Nevada (AP) - -- Union nurses upset over staffing shortages are getting ready to go on strike again at Washoe Medical Center in Reno. A hospital spokeswoman announced late yesterday that the union plans another one-day walk-out on November 21st. The union nurses say the staffing shortages sometimes put patients' care in jeopardy. They staged a one-day strike in June in an effort to force northern Nevada's largest hospital back to the table in a two-year-old contract dispute. ...
Nurses threaten more action
<http://onenews.nzoom.com/news_detail/0,1227,66532-1-6,00.html>
One News, November 12, 2001
Hospital bosses in Christchurch are warning they will not be able to guarantee patient safety if staff take more industrial action. A one day strike by about 1,200 nurses and other health workers forced the closure of some hospital wards at Princess Margaret and Hillmorton hospitals on Monday. The strike follows five months of bargaining and 14 days of negotiations. The striking workers say their resolve has never been greater. ...
Union tops election at Glendale Memorial
SOUTHWEST GLENDALE -- Technical, service and maintenance employees at Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center could be represented by their first union pending an election in the next few weeks. Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union and Service Employees International Union competed in an election last week to represent the hospital's 600 licensed vocational nurses, certified nurse assistants, clerks, service and maintenance staff. Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union earned the top spot in the election, harnessing 244 of the 554 votes cast. The choice of having no union representation came in second with 217 votes, and Service Employees International Union obtained 50 votes. All votes were counted by late Thursday. "I feel that we won the election," said Irena Numanovic, a patient-care associate who voted for Caregivers. "Basically, the majority of Glendale Memorial wants a union." ...
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Nurses say no to privatization and spending freeze
Expanding the role of private business in health care is a recipe for conflicts-of-interest and runaway spending, the BC Nursesı Union said today. In a brief to the Legislatureıs Select Standing Committee on Health, BCNU president Debra McPherson said government proposals to contract out surgeries to private clinics and to build private hospitals are short-sighted moves that would lead to the erosion of public access to a quality public health care system. Instead, the brief calls on the government to adopt innovative changes that would protect and improve public Medicare. Among the solutions are measures to enhance the retention and recruitment of Registered Nurses amid the current RN shortage while many RNs are eligible to retire. ...
CAW Calls for Stronger Public Health Care
<http://www.caw.ca/news/contactnewsletter/showissue.cfm#2448>
Canadian Auto Workers, November 11, 2001
The CAW is calling for stronger and expanded universal, public health care programs in Canada including a national pharmacare and a national home care program. CAW representatives made a submission before the Senate Committee on Social Affairs in Halifax, Nova Scotia on November 6. The Senate Committee, chaired by Michael Kirby is currently holding public hearings throughout Canada on the state of Medicare in Canada. The Kirby Committee has released an interim report that proposes turning our public health care system into a two-tiered, for-profit system - including user fees and private clinics. The Kirby Committee report will be competing with the vision for Medicare offered by the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, headed by Roy Romanow. ³Itıs long past time the federal government renewed and strengthened its commitment to universal, public health care,² said Cecil Snow, president of CAW Local 4603 and president of the CAW health council in Nova Scotia. ...
Lack of health care for all creates security risk
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-11-12-ncguest2.htm>
by Ted Halstead and Michael Lind, USA Today, 11/11/2001
From President Bush on down, our leaders are finally getting serious about the risks of bioterrorism. But in all of their proposals for early detection, for stockpiling vaccines, for upgrading hospitals they continue to ignore one of the weakest links in our homeland defense: the armies of Americans without health insurance. Health experts say the early detection of illness is one of the best ways to counteract bioterrorism. But how can we do that when nearly 40 million Americans lack access to basic health insurance? Many of the low-income workers least likely to have health insurance are among the most likely to be on the front lines in this new age of bioterrorism. ...
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BAILOUT: Another Free Lunch for Fat Cats
<http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/suncommentary/la-000088154nov04.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dsuncomment>
by Greg Goldin, Los Angeles Times, November 4, 2001
Call it the 9-11 aftershock. The Bush administration, switching to war footing, is treating the deepening economic crisis as a second casualty of the Sept. 11 attack. Bush rushed through a $15-billion bailout to the airlines, promptly proposed ways the government would help shoulder insurers' losses from future terrorist attacks and quickly began promoting a $75-billion pump-priming package. The administration's unspoken message is that the government has a duty to protect its citizens from the "collateral" fallout of financial hardship and collapse. The trouble is, the bailouts and stimulus are, like Bush's $1.3 trillion tax cut, a handout to big business and the super-rich. That "amazing spirit of sacrifice" the president has repeatedly commended? That's for the pink-slipped hotel maids standing in line for free groceries. ...
No wonder they arenıt spending money on smallpox vaccine
WASHINGTON - America's war in Afghanistan so far has racked up a bill of at least $400 million, and could rocket up to $1 billion a month for the duration of the conflict, according to defense budget analysts. The Pentagon has not yet provided even a ballpark accounting of the cost of Operation Enduring Freedom, an air campaign that meets the one-month mark Wednesday. But the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonprofit Washington think tank with a record of accurate estimations of past military operations, has cobbled together one for the first 25 days of the current conflict, which began Oct. 7 with a barrage of US bombs and cruise missiles against Taliban and al Qaeda targets in the Central Asian country. ...
Corporate Patriotism
<http://www.citizenworks.org>
by Ralph Nader, November 10, 2001
US corporations aren't even subtle about it. Waving a flag and carrying a big shovel, corporate interests are scooping up government benefits and taxpayer money in an unprecedented fashion while the public is preoccupied with the September 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan. Shamelessly, the Bush Administration and Congress have taken advantage of the patriotic outpouring to fulfill the wish lists of their most generous corporate campaign donors. Not only is the Treasury being raided, but regulations protecting everything from personal privacy to environmental safeguards are under attack by well-heeled lobbyists who want to stampede Congress to act while the media and citizens are distracted. Only a handful in the Congress -- members like Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and Representatives Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Barbara Lee of California -- have shown the courage to question the giveaways and the quick wipeout of civil liberties and other citizen protections. ...
Which America Will We Be Now?
<http://www.TheNation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011119&s=moyers>
by Bill Moyers, The Nation, November 19, 2001
For the past several years I've been taking every possible opportunity to talk about the soul of democracy. "Something is deeply wrong with politics today," I told anyone who would listen. And I wasn't referring to the partisan mudslinging, the negative TV ads, the excessive polling or the empty campaigns. I was talking about something fundamental, something troubling at the core of politics. The soul of democracy -- the essence of the word itself -- is government of, by and for the people. And the soul of democracy has been dying, drowning in a rising tide of big money contributed by a narrow, unrepresentative elite that has betrayed the faith of citizens in self-government. ...
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Young pay for failures of Saddam, sanctions
<http://www.projo.com/cgi-bin/story.pl/news/06479131.htm>
by Randall Richard, Providence Journal, 11.5.2001
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The girl was perfect -- 5 years old, innocent and dead. If you wanted, you could touch her, just to be sure. The flesh was cold, but still supple. Rigor mortis had yet to set in. A short man with dark, noncommittal eyes pulled back a spotless, beige blanket and exposed the child's throat for anyone who needed confirmation that there was no longer a pulse. Only one person did. The other handful of Americans in the hospital corridor simply stepped aside to clear a path for their designated photographer. ...
The Secret Behind the Sanctions
Over the last two years, I've discovered documents of the Defense Intelligence Agency proving beyond a doubt that, contrary to the Geneva Convention, the US government intentionally used sanctions against Iraq to degrade the country's water supply after the Gulf War. The United States knew the cost that civilian Iraqis, mostly children, would pay, and it went ahead anyway. The primary document, "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities," is dated January 22, 1991. It spells out how sanctions will prevent Iraq from supplying clean water to its citizens. ...
Peace rally denounces terrorism, US strikes
<http://www.dawn.com/2001/11/07/nat22.htm>
by Our Reporter, The Dawn, 07 November 2001, 20 Shaban 1422
RAWALPINDI, Nov 6: The Alliance for Peace and Justice held a peace rally on Tuesday and demanded the US and its allies to put an end to the on-going war against Afghanistan. The rally, comprising activists of trade unions, peasants, trade organizations and other sections of the society, started from the Rawalpindi Press Club around 3pm. The participants, chanting slogans against extremism and violence, marched upto the Committee Chowk, where after a brief spell of speeches they returned to the Press Club. The demonstrators were also carrying placards and banners inscribed with slogans for prevalence of peace. Some of the slogans read: "War is not an answer to violence", "Yes to peace; no to terrorism", "Justice, not revenge", "We condemn bigotry and revenge in all aspects", "Justice, yes; retaliation no", "Reason not passion", "Unite against terrorism". The groups of working and educated women raised slogans against fundamentalism and extremism. They also denounced Taliban-style governance, specially with regard to restricting women from receiving education and earning a living. ...
PAKISTAN: Many at a loss over Northern Alliance gains
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/316/nation/Many_at_a_loss_over_Northern_Alliance_gains+.shtml>
by Anne Barnard & Yvonne Abraham, Boston Globe, 11/12/2001
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - If the Northern Alliance's advances against the Taliban yesterday raised spirits in Washington, here in Pakistan, where distrust for the US-backed force runs deep, the cheers were decidedly faint. The last thing most Pakistanis want is for the Northern Alliance to control Afghanistan. That worry came to the fore yesterday as opposition commanders said they had retaken their old base, Taloqan, and, in spite of pressure from the United States, refused to rule out marching on the capital, Kabul. ''Everyone, all the people of Pakistan, 140 million, believe that the Northern Alliance is not our friend,'' said Nawaz Raza, president of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club, who led an antiwar protest in Rawalpindi yesterday. ...
AFGHAN EXILES: Women cherish Taliban setback
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/317/nation/Women_cherish_Taliban_setback+.shtml>
by Anne Barnard, Boston Globe, 11/13/2001
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The afternoon started as a graduation ceremony for a dressmaking class, but by the time the quavering Afghan music started up, there was something more to celebrate. The graduates and their coaches were fixing a lunch of cauliflower and yogurt when the news came over BBC radio: Opposition troops had moved to positions just outside Kabul, the hometown the women fled to escape the Taliban regime. The party suddenly took on new meaning, right down to the hired musicians due to arrive any minute - three unrelated men whose presence, not to mention the music itself, would have been a crime in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The women had particular reason to gloat at the Taliban setback. The fundamentalist militia threw three of them in jail last year, along with three other colleagues and their boss, a 72-year-old American woman who has lived in Afghanistan for much of the last 40 years. Their offense was working outside the home, teaching widows to make sweaters and tablecloths instead of begging. ...
Peace congress considers alternatives
<http://www.gazettenet.com/11122001/news/8509.htm>
by Daniella Malin, Daily Hampshire Gazette, November 12, 2001
NORTHAMPTON - More than 200 women convened in the First Church on Main Street Saturday to find an alternative to war. "Its just good for my heart to be with over 200 women all focusing together to find ways to promote justice and peace," said Irvine Sobelman of Northampton. "I found that dissenting has left me feeling very isolated." The turnout for the event exceeded organizers' expectations, with walk-ins comprising almost a third of those who attended. About 230 women gathered for the all-day "Women's Congress for Peace," which brought women together in an effort to promote a peaceful alternative to the current war on terrorism. ...
Bishops eye limited support of war
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/317/metro/Bishops_eye_limited_support_of_war+.shtml>
by Michael Paulson, Boston Globe, 11/13/2001
WASHINGTON - Declaring that ''every life is precious, whether a person works at the World Trade Center or lives in Afghanistan,'' American Catholic bishops are poised to approve a sweeping document that provides a limited endorsement of US military action but urges broader attention to global injustices. A committee of bishops chaired by Cardinal Bernard F. Law of Boston on Thursday will ask the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to issue its first broad statement responding to the issues raised by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Law said he started putting together a panel to write a statement for the bishops the day after the attacks, knowing that it would be important for them to speak out. The proposed document argues that the attacks on America ''were unique in their scale, but they were not isolated. Sadly, our world is losing respect for human life.'' The document calls on Americans to ''pursue whatever courses are within their powers to promote a just international social order,'' and says that ''Catholics cannot remain neutral with respect to that goal.'' Specifically, the document urges a renewed push for a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an end to the UN embargo against Iraq, action to end the ''systematic campaign of terror'' being waged by the Sudanese government, more foreign aid and debt forgiveness to address ''intolerable extremes of misery'' among the world's poor, and efforts to improve human rights, limit the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and strengthen the United Nations. ...
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Green Party Wins US Recognition
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62099-2001Nov8.html>
By Sharon Theimer, Associated Press, November 8, 2001
WASHINGTON The Green Party won status as a national committee Thursday, recognition from federal election regulators that will allow it to collect larger campaign contributions. The Federal Election Commission ruled 6-0 that the Green Party of the United States has established a national presence sufficient to gain the same legal status the Democratic and Republican parties have long held. The national Green Party can now accept donations of up to $20,000 a year per donor and can pass money on to state and local party committees. That provides an important new source of party-building finances for those committees, which can only accept contributions of up to $5,000 a year from each individual supporter. ...
Nader calls US war riverboat gambleı
by Joe Spurr & Jenny Jiang, Boston Sunday Globe, November 11, 2001
Ralph Naderıs criticisms of the federal government during last yearıs presidential race havenıt shrunk. Theyıve grown.
Calling the US war in Afghanistan ³a riverboat gamble,² Nader said President Bush is ³basically in the process of burning down the haystack to find the needle.²
In an interview yesterday with the Globe before speaking at a peace rally in Boston, Nader argued that a blend of ³bribes, spies, and limited military action, coupled with a big humanitarian effort by the UN² would be more effective and minimize the costs to innocent civilians.
³You have to ask yourself, What happens after you catch the backers of the attackers and you leave ... behind an extremely devastated society bitter?ı² Nader said.
He addressed a near-capacity crowd at the 2,700-seat Orpheum Theatre during the ³Democracy Rising² tour, a series of rallies to bring local and national groups together on such issues as universal health care and clean elections.
The crowd clapped as they watched excerpts from an independent documentary on peace rallies in Washington and New York after the Sept. 11 attacks.
³I think that Americans do feel an impulse to support their government at this time,² said John Brett, a senior at Dartmouth College. But ³even though the polls show that the majority of Americans support some sort of action, they may not support the actual measures put in place by the government.²
Sitting in the lobby of the Omni Parker House hotel before the rally, Nader said that not only would thousands of Afghan civilians suffer as a result of the US military campaign, but the strikes may foster deeper resentment toward the United States.
³If we reconstruct Afghanistan, we could come out ahead with the people because the Taliban is very repressive,² Nader said. ³But weıve never done that since the
Marshall Plan in Europe. Every time we get involved - Somalia, Grenada, Panama - we back out like the Wild West tavern guys backing out with their six-guns flaming.²
History has shown that once the pressure is off, Congress is less likely to appropriate money for reconstruction, Nader said.
³Now, maybe itıll be different this time, because they need Afghanistan for a pipeline and other interests,² Nader said. ³Suddenly, Afghanistan becomes strategic.²
He accused the Bush administration of capitalizing on the ³thought conformity² in Capitol Hill and creating a climate where dissent is viewed as being unpatriotic, un-American.
Patti Smith sings out proudly for Nader
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/316/living/Patti_Smith_sings_out_proudly_for_Nader+.shtml>
by The Globe, 11/12/2001
Saturday night at the Orpheum. Harvard University was roundly booed - for resisting raising the minimum wage of custodians, we'd guess - and the idea of universal health care was applauded. From the stage, the World Trade Center attack was called terrorism; so was the US response in Afghanistan. The media? ''Advance troops for the Pentagon,'' said one speaker. Out in the lobby, bartender Jabber said it was a terrible night for beer and wine sales. If the last Orpheum event, a concert by Widespread Panic, was a 10, he said, this was a 2. This was a rally sponsored by Ralph Nader's Democracy Rising group and, with 2,600 people in the house, a near-sellout. MC and political satirist Barry Crimmins called it ''one of the most sympathetic crowds I've played to in a long time - one of the only crowds they'll let me play to.'' ...
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