Nurse warns staff levels now unsafe
<http://www.masslive.com/printer/printer.ssf?/news/pstories/ae1116nu.html>
by John F. Lauerman, Springfield Union News, November 16, 2001
HADLEY (Massachusetts) Inadequate nursing staff at hospitals puts older people at risk, warned nurses at a meeting for seniors yesterday.
"Fewer nurses are taking care of patients out on the floor," said Sandy Ellis, a psychiatric nurse at Worcester Medical Center/St. Vincent's Hospital. "While you might be having chest pain, someone else might be having chest pain, and your nurse has to decide who gets her care."
Staff reductions, sicker patients, and stressed nurses are making hospital floors an increasingly dangerous place, Ellis told a meeting of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council's Hadley chapter. Nurse patient loads have increased 40 percent to 50 percent during the past decade, she said, while only the sickest patients are admitted to the hospital.
"The teaching we used to give to patients just isn't happening," she said. "If you have diabetes, we need to teach you to test your blood sugar and take your insulin. And that's not happening, so you're coming back to the hospital because something else has happened to you."
An April U.S. Department of Health and Human Services study, conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Health, linked inadequate nursing staff to negative patient outcomes, such as gastrointestinal bleeding, urinary tract infections, skin ulcers, blood clotting and shock. The report called for laws to establish minimum staffing levels at hospitals. Some hospitals are trying to add nurses.
The Massachusetts Nurses Association supports House bill 1186, the "Safe Staffing" bill designed to ensure sufficient nursing care in institutions. The bill is still under study by the Joint Committee on Health Care and will likely go before the Legislature early next year. According to a spokesperson, committee co-chair Sen. Richard T. Moore remains concerned that the bill may obligate hospitals to impose mandatory overtime on workers.
İ 2001 UNION-NEWS. Used with permission.
Copyright 2001 Masslive.com. All Rights Reserved.
Half of nurses answering poll say they'll quit
<http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20011114nurses1114bnp5.asp>
by Jim McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 14, 2001
Registered nurses in Pennsylvania are so disgusted with their jobs that 56 percent responding to a survey on working conditions said they would never enter the profession again if they had to do it over. Nearly half, 46 percent, of the 6,000 polled by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses & Allied Professionals said they intended to leave nursing altogether, half of them in the next five years. "They paint a stark portrait of a profession and a health- care system in crisis," Pearl Kolbosky, a vice president at the union and registered nurse at Jeannette District Memorial Hospital in Westmoreland County, said yesterday. ...
Low ICU Nurse-to-Patient Ratio Linked to Increased Complications and Costs
<http://managedcare.medscape.com/reuters/prof/2001/11/11.14/20011113prof001.html>
WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Nov 13 - Having fewer nurses in the intensive care unit (ICU) at night is associated with more patient complications and increased costs, according to a report in the November issue of the American Journal of Critical Care. Dr. Justin B. Dimick and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, collected data on 569 patients who were in the ICU after undergoing hepatic resection. The researchers defined fewer nurses at night as having one nurse for three or more patients and having more nurses as one nurse for one or two patients. ...
Health groups criticize Swift
The American Cancer Society, the AIDS Action Committee, Planned Parenthood, and 26 other groups plan to hold a rally on Beacon Hill today to protest proposed Swift administration budget cuts, which they say will undo decades of progress against AIDS, cancer, smoking, and teen pregnancy. AIDS deaths, for example, dropped 71 percent in Massachusetts between 1996 and 1999, thanks in large part to state-funded education, screening, and treatment programs, said Dr. Stephen Boswell, executive director of the Fenway Community Health Center. Now, a whole range of nursing, counseling, and testing services, which help the center's HIV-positive clients maintain their complex regimen of anti-AIDS drugs, face elimination as part of $66 million in proposed cuts in the 2002 state Department of Public Health Budget, Boswell said. ''We can't do this in the name of fiscal prudence, it's insanity,'' Boswell said. ''Some of these people are going to end up in the hospital getting much more expensive care.'' ...
Marian workers elect to unionize
<http://www.santamariatimes.com/archives/index.inn?loc=detail&doc=/2001/November/15-2345-news10.txt>
by Britt Fekete & Allen Moody, Santa Maria Times, November 15, 2001
SANTA MARIA - Marian Medical Center's service employees voted 172-150 Tuesday and Wednesday to join the Caregivers and Healthcare Employees Union. Final votes were tallied Wednesday night. The service employees - which include nurses aides, custodians and scrub techs - will now join the Caregiver and Healthcare Employees Union, an independent organization allied with the California Nurses Association. In April, registered nurses at Marian joined CNA. The Caregivers Union had battled Catholic Healthcare West, which owns eight hospitals including Marion, and a rival, Service Employees International Union, which wanted the service employees to become members of its union. Fernando Losada, director of union organizing, said the Caregivers Union formed this year when registered nurses at the hospitals joined CNA. Service employees at Marian were the first in the area to hold an election on whether to join Caregivers Union. ...
Long Beach Memorial RNs Say 'Yes' to CNA
Largest Hospital Union Election Win in Years
California Nurses Association, November 16, 2001
11th Win Caps 'Story Book' Year for State's Largest RN Organization
In the largest single hospital union election win for Registered Nurses in California in many years, Registered Nurses at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center today voted to affiliate with the California Nurses Association. The final count was 630 for CNA to 523 for "no union." The National Labor Relations Board supervised the secret ballot election. More than 1,300 RNs will be represented by CNA at Long Beach Memorial. Long Beach Memorial is the second largest private hospital Los Angeles County and one of the biggest in the state. Today's vote is believed to be the largest single hospital union vote by RNs in nearly two decades. With the Long Beach vote, CNA has now won 11 union representation elections for some 4,500 RNs at 10 hospitals this year - most of them in Southern California - an unprecedented sweep. "It's been a story book year," said CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro. CNA, California's largest organization of RNs and one of the fastest growing unions in the US, has more than doubled its membership in five years and now represents close to 40,000 nurses. But the Long Beach vote, with its size and a history of safe staffing and other nursing concerns, will have an especially dramatic impact, DeMoro noted. ...
MMA endorses limits on length of residents work week
<http://www.boston.com/dailynews/321/region/MMA_endorses_limits_on_length_:.shtml>
Associated Press, 11/17/2001
WALTHAM, Mass. (AP) The state's largest doctors organization, saying excessive hours are a threat to patient safety, has endorsed a plan to limit the number of hours worked by young doctors to 80 per week.
The Massachusetts Medical Society, with 17,000 members, passed the resolution at its house of delegates interim meeting Saturday.
''We took this action to ensure the interest of patient safety,'' said Dr. Francis X. Rockett, the society's president. ''There is credible evidence that excessive resident work hours can negatively impact the quality of care.''
In addition to calling for the 80-hour work week, the resolution calls for:
* limiting shifts to 24 hours.
* requiring that residents get one day off in every seven.
* limiting resident physician calls to once in every three nights.
The resolution calls on the society to consider drafting legislation that would enforce the recommendations, protect doctors who report violations, and penalize programs that violate the regulations.
İ Copyright 2001 Boston Globe Electronic Publishing Inc.
Hale trying to lure nurses
HAVERHILL - The new owners of Hale Hospital are offering $10,000 in signing bonuses along with relocation and tuition reimbursements in hopes of attracting back registered nurses to the still-struggling facility. An acute nursing shortage at the 108-bed hospital has forced administrators to drastically scale back patient admissions because the current staff can care for only 30 patients a day, said spokeswoman Tabatha Thompson. Lacking staff nurses, the hospital is relying heavily on temporaries who are paid by the day, she said. Last week Essent Healthcare of Nashville announced it was changing Hale's name to Merrimack Valley Hospital in hopes of leaving behind the hospital's recent financial problems and setting the stage for a new beginning. The state's last municipally owned hospital, Hale racked up a $30 million deficit in the last two years until Essent agreed to purchase it and change it to a profit-making enterprise. ...
School nurses face uncertain future
<http://www.gazettenet.com/11172001/schools/8678.htm>
by Pancho Gutstein, Daily Hampshire Gazette, November 17, 2001
AMHERST - Between treating bloody noses and administering medicines, school nurse Linda Stenlund contemplates an uncertain future. Like hundreds of school nurses across the state, Stenlund could lose her job if acting Gov. Jane Swift's proposal to cut the state Enhanced School Grant from $16.1 million to $6.1 million is not withdrawn. The grant covers expanded nursing services for 109 public school districts in the state. The Frontier Regional School District, Hadley and Granby would also face cuts. The Amherst-Pelham Regional School District receives $90,000 of the state funding annually. If Swift's plan goes through, that figure will drop nearly 60 percent to $40,400. And Stenlund, the schools' special project nurse whose position is paid by the grant, will be out of a job, according to Elaine Cuphone, director of pupil personal services, who administers the grant. But Stenlund says she is less concerned about her own future than that of the school community she has been a member of since September. "There are not enough nurse hours in the day as it is to cover the needs of the kids and the school community," Stenlund said. ...
Action urged over nursing jobs
Nursing leaders and trade unions have called on the Scottish Executive to take action to improve conditions for nurses and the standard of care available for patients. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Scotland and the public services union Unison say help is needed to attract more people into the profession and ensure that those already there stay on. The call from both organisations follows a staff survey, which suggested the majority of nurses thought they were under too much pressure due to understaffing. They also want the Nursing and Midwifery Convention, which is due to take place on Monday, to formulate new proposals for making the profession more attractive to potential recruits. Tracy McFall, chair of RCN Scotland, said: "Nurses in Scotland are under increasing workload pressures and are concerned that they are unable to give patients the care they need. ...
Competition for Nurses Hots Up
<http://workers.labor.net.au/119/news72_nurse.html>
LaborNET, 16 Nov 2001
Nurses at one of Australia's largest private hospitals have won significant improvements in wages and conditions, which go a long way towards making nursing a more attractive profession. NSW Nurses Association members at St Vincent's Private Hospital have voted to accept a new enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA), which provides a pay rise that is 2.5 per cent above current public sector rates and major improvements in such things as allowances, maternity and paternity leave, salary sacrificing and rostering procedures. NSWNA Acting General Secretary, Brett Holmes, says the St Vincent's agreement is a credit to the nurses at St Vincent's who struggled hard for this outcome. "It also increases the pressure on the NSW Government and other health care employers. NSW is experiencing a serious nurse shortage, which is impacting on the availability and quality of health and aged care services. St Vincent's seems to have accepted this fact to some extent and has gone some way towards improving the working life of its nurses. ...
Sask. nurses to ask for 30 per cent raise in January bargaining
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=4D429301-EC6D-4E11-A9B3-B6638359DF9E>
Canadian Press, November 16, 2001
SASKATOON (CP) - Saskatchewan registered nurses will demand a 30 per cent wage raise when contract talks begin in January, says the president of the union representing them. The top salary would then increase $7.50 per hour to $32.42, the same rate paid to top Alberta nurses. Rosalee Longmoore, the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses president, said nurses must be paid the same as their Alberta colleagues or the migration west will continue. SUN projects a net loss of more than 500 nurses this year, with 47 per cent moving to Alberta. "We need to begin now to retain nurses that are new graduates," Longmoore said. ...
ERs in critical condition
<http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/hosp11182001.htm>
by Kay Lazar, Boston Herald, November 18, 2001
The doomsday scenario most feared by doctors running emergency rooms in Greater Boston does not feature anthrax, smallpox or other scary bioterrorist germs. Instead, their nightmares focus on threats, they say, which are much more real - waves of patients with the flu flooding already-swamped hospitals this winter and overwhelming so many facilities that the emergency medical system shuts down. ³This winter, all of our crisis management interventions will not be adequate, so we need to have a disaster plan in place for what the system is going to do,² said Dr. Alan Woodward, director of emergency services at Emerson Hospital in Concord. ³Are we going to bring in mobile hospitals? Are we going to call in DMAT (Disaster Medical Assistance Team, under control of the U.S. Public Health Service) teams?² Gridlocked emergency rooms, Woodward said, can mean critical delays in care for seriously ill patients as ambulances are diverted to hospitals farther away. ...
HOSPITALS EXAMINED: A system pushed to its limits
<http://www.projo.com/cgi-bin/story.pl/news/06567111.htm>
Last December, a surgeon at Rhode Island Hospital operated on the wrong child, performing a tonsillectomy on a girl who was supposed to get eye surgery. It was a classic example of a medical error because it involved not ill will, not even incompetence, but an innocent mistake by one person followed by others' failure to catch it. Two girls in the waiting room had similar names, and at least two people who should have verified the child's identity didn't make the check. A more serious mixup occurred in 1993 at Rhode Island Hospital, when emergency-room workers rushing to flush out a baby's intravenous line grabbed the wrong fluid, filling the baby's veins with undiluted potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride. The baby, a 10-month-old girl, died. ...
What state inspectors found in a close look at hospitals
<http://www.projo.com/cgi-bin/story.pl/news/06567101.htm>
Recent reports on hospital care in Rhode Island, based on statistics, have offered a rosy view of the quality of care that patients receive. But when the Health Department sent a handful of its most experienced inspectors for a close-up view of the state's 14 hospitals this year, their findings painted a darker picture. Hospitals are struggling, says Donald C. Williams, the Health Department's director of health services regulation, more so than he's seen before in his 25 years regulating them. "They're stressed," he says. "They're stressed in terms of finances and personnel. They have sicker patients, shorter stays, increased administrative burdens, and a compression in the window available for discharge planning and care planning." To be sure, the health inspectors went looking for trouble. They stuck their noses only into the parts of hospital operations that they knew to be under stress, trying to determine if each and every rule was being followed to the letter. ...
HEALTH CARE
<http://www.pioneerplanet.com/seven-days/tod/news/docs/184022.htm>
Associated Press, November 14, 2001
Allina Health System will shut down its Medformation medical advice phone line at the end of the year to cut costs. The move is expected to save $1 million a year, the company announced Monday. The decision is being criticized by the Minnesota Nurses Association, which said Medformation is one of the few services that offers free medical help to the community. Allina officials said the cut, which will eliminate the jobs of 20 registered nurses and an unspecified number of non-union workers, was necessary as part of a $30 million reduction in corporate spending. ...
Small Vote for Universal Care Is Seen as Carrying a Lot of Weight
by Pam Belluck, The New York Times, November 16, 2001
PORTLAND, Me., Nov. 14 - It was the kind of Election Day enterprise that usually slips under the radar, a local nonbinding resolution about health insurance at a time when the nation is consumed by matters of war and terrorism. Most people expected a low-budget campaign and low-static vote with little teeth to it.
Instead, a vote this month in Portland on whether Maine should become the first state with universal health care could be the beginning of a new round in the nation's health care debate.
The state's primary health insurer spent hundreds of thousands of dollars - more than some Congressional candidates here spend - to try to defeat the referendum, even though it was purely advisory. Opponents of the measure broadcast a battery of television commercials contending that government-run health care would mean long waits, rationed medical care, prohibitively high taxes and bureaucratic nightmares.
And now that the referendum has passed, albeit by 52 percent to 48 percent, both sides are bracing for more bruising battles, with the issue likely to come before the Maine Legislature next session.
"I would expect a full-court press this time around," said Bill Coogan, an associate professor of political science at the University of Southern Maine. "They're not going to fool around with this now."
Attempts to bring about universal health coverage are under way in several states, including Maryland and Oregon. Dozens of other states have made more incremental moves toward expanding health coverage, like increasing coverage for children or using money from the settlement with tobacco companies to pay for prescription drugs.
But passage of the proposal - to set up a health care system in which the state government would insure everyone - indicates a reawakened interest in universal health care and, more important, the amount spent to defeat it shows how seriously the health care industry is taking the new movement.
Diane Lardie, national director of the Universal Health Care Action Network, a national group based in Cleveland, said that after the defeat of the Clinton health care plan in 1994, organizations advocating expanded health care coverage "faded into oblivion."
"But they're coming back again," Ms. Lardie added. She called the Portland vote "a harbinger of things to come."
Even private health insurers are acknowledging public discontent with health care and are beginning to speak of the need for a system that reins in rate increases and covers everyone in some form.
"We can't have these kinds of increases year after year after year," said Bill Cohen, a spokesman for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, the largest insurer in Maine. "We've got to do something."
But that is where private insurers and proponents of a government-insured, or single-payer system, part company.
Supporters of Canada's government-administered health service say that a single-payer system would not only cover everyone, it would cost less, be more efficient, and eliminate so much paperwork that thousands of paper pushers would need to be retrained for new jobs. In their vision, the system would be financed by taxes, but would cost less than most people are now paying for health insurance.
John Dieffenbacher-Krall, co-director of the Maine People's Alliance, which backs a government- insured plan, said that proponents estimated that for 2001, based in part on studies of state health care costs, a single-payer plan would have cost $5.1 billion, while the current system will cost $5.5 billion.
"We ought to guarantee insurance for every patient, good insurance where you can choose your doctor and that's guaranteed," said Dr. Duncan Wright, an emergency room psychiatrist at the Maine Medical Center, who helped lead the campaign for the referendum.
Dr. Wright, who is also coordinator of the Southern Maine Labor Party, said he had been motivated by patients like a suicidal woman who had to spend down her life savings to be admitted to a hospital under a health plan for the indigent.
"I don't think it's going to solve any of the problems," said Dr. Ron Carroll, an oncologist who appeared in a commercial opposing a government health system and said doctors could find other ways to rein in costs. Dr. Carroll said a single-payer plan "engages in budget controls, which ultimately result in the rationing of health care."
To fight the measure, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield contributed $382,000 to a group called Citizens for Sensible Health Care Choices, which sought to seed doubts with television commercials that reminded some of the "Harry and Louise" advertisements that helped defeat the Clinton health plan.
People on both sides say if not for the commercials, the measure would have passed by a wide margin in Portland, a city of 65,000 with a concentration of colleges, artists and young people that helps make it Maine's most liberal community.
Mark Cenci, co-chairman of Citizens for Sensible Health Care Choices and chairman of Maine's Libertarian Party, said that what was striking was not how much Anthem spent on the campaign, but how little the single-payer proponents raised, about $25,000.
"They had one year," said Mr. Cenci, a geologist involved in wastewater cleanup who does not have health insurance. "If they couldn't raise significant money, that shows they're incompetent."
Maine, with about 165,000 uninsured residents, about 13 percent of its population, has made other attempts to expand health care coverage and cut costs, including using the threat of price controls to force prescription drug discounts.
Last year, a bill to create a government-insured system passed the House, but narrowly failed in the Senate. Ultimately, Gov. Angus King, an independent, who opposes a single-payer plan, agreed to create a board to study the issue and submit a proposal to the Legislature in March.
The Portland vote was close enough to allow both sides to claim success.
"It shows an incredible David over Goliath victory for the people," said State Representative Paul Volenik, who sponsored last year's legislation. "I think the industry was trying to show if they could defeat this referendum in Portland, they would not have to worry about the Legislature putting forth a plan. "
But opponents give a single-payer plan slim prospects. "I think we beat it," Mr. Cenci said. "If they can't win big in Portland, they're not going to carry anything else."
Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
Cause of ER closure nothing new
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=63579BDA-5C7B-4457-9D52-3B6B9984F0B5>
Global BC, November 15, 2001
At Royal Columbian hospital patients wait on gurnies for a bed in emergency. Itıs a typical day, every bed is full and those who have to deal with the system are frustrated. "We waited approximately five and a half hours before she got any attention and she was in severe pain," said one patientıs friend. "If I had anything to do with this, Iıd have the government here and theyıd have to wait in line," said another frustrated patient. The problem is a nursing shortage although nurses like Heather Quayle have recently been recruited the hospital has still had to close as many as 54 beds in recent days because of staffing shortages. "We are targetting New Zealand, Australia, and I believe Singapore," Health Planning Minister Sindi Hawkins said three months ago. In August, the Liberals promised $21.4 million to help the problem, but recruiting new nurses remains an uphill battle for hospitals. ...
Health care decisions should be made at home
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=BBD78E8E-FD50-4461-8D32-71B2EFAD5A7D>
New Glasgow Evening News, November 18, 2001
The future of health care should rest more in the hands of the community, a group of health care authorities said Thursday at a panel discussion. The health forum was presented by the Pictou West NDP Association in Pictou. Nova Scotia Nurses Union president Heather Henderson, NDP provincial leader Darrell Dexter, Pictou West physician Gordon Young and Pictou West Community Health Board chair Bonnie Allan were part of the panel. While there were no panaceas produced at the meeting, Dexter pointed out that there seemed to be a "reaffirmation" that grassroots should be more involved in directing health care. "Health care decision-making should (come from) the community," he said. ...
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan fined $500,000 in patient's death
<http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/california/stories_statebrk/kaiser_20011115.htm>
by Jennifer Coleman, Associated Press, November 15, 2001
SACRAMENTO -- State HMO regulators fined the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. Thursday $500,000 for failing to give a timely referral to a 19-year-old man who later died. Timothy Water's mother requested a referral to a muscular dystrophy specialist at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, said Daniel Zingale, director of the state Department of Managed Health Care. Most children diagnosed with Duchennes muscular dystrophy begin having respiratory problems in their late teens. When Waters' mother Junette LaLonde noticed her son was having problems breathing, she first called the specialist at UC Davis. "They said they couldn't see him unless they had the referral," said LaLonde, who lives in Stockton. Waters died six days later without a referral, Zingale said. ...
Boston Pan-Africa Forum Invitation
Prof. Willard R. Johnson, MIT Political Science Department, & The Boston Pan-African Forum invite you to a Benefit for African AIDS Orphanages:
Tickets available at door or go to <http://www.bpaf.org> to download an invitation to register in advance.
Proceeds will be donated to the Uganda Orphans Rural Development Project in Tororo district, Uganda, and to Circle of Life, an AIDS NGO in Pretoria, South Africa.
The Boston Pan-African Forum is a 501c3 nonprofit organization - contributions are tax-deductible. For additional information on this program or the BPAF in general, please visit our website, WWW.BPAF.ORG, or call us at (617) 869-3428.
DECLARATION OF PEACE & SOLIDARITY
<http://www.clc-ctc.ca/campaigns/peace_solidarity.html>
Canadian Labour Congress, October 30, 2001
1. The Canadian Labour Congress reaffirms its condemnation of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington of September 11, 2001, and its shock and sorrow at the loss of nearly 7,000 lives (1,000 of whom were union members) from over 81 countries including many Canadians. These acts are crimes against humanity and every means must be used, within the rule of law, to bring those who planned and ordered these horrendous crimes to justice. ...
Hargrove: Reconsider Anti-Terrorism Bill
<http://www.caw.ca/news/contactnewsletter/showissue.cfm#2435>
Canadian Auto Workers
CAW president Buzz Hargrove is urging the federal Liberals to reconsider its proposed anti-terrorism Bill C-36. ³We strongly feel that Bill C-36 in its current form would seriously impede the civil liberties of Canadians,² Hargrove states in a letter to Justice Minister Anne McLellan. The CAWıs National Executive Board passed a statement October 17 expressing serious concerns with the bill. Hargrove said the definition of ³terrorist activity² proposed in the bill is very broad and would allow interpretations by authorities to include trade unions and legitimate political organizations. ...
International Metalworkers Federation
Congress adopts statement on terrorism
SYDNEY: The 30th IMF World Congress, composed of 800 delegates from 100 countries, has adopted a statement on the struggle against terrorism. "Although not a unanimous vote, the overwhelming majority in favor of the statement shows that we are able to put aside our differences and personal views, and unite behind a call for the fight against terrorism," IMF assistant general secretary Brian Fredricks says. "In addressing the question of terror, the Congress also - in a spirit of solidarity - addresses the issue of poverty," Fredricks stresses. Below follows the text of the adopted statement, in English.
The IMF and its affiliates meeting at the IMF's 30 World Congress in Sydney, Australia from 11-15 November 2001, reiterate their outrage and condemnation of the terrorist attacks in the USA on September 11, 2001 which led to the death of over 5,000 innocent American and foreign civilians, and injured thousands more. We express our full solidarity, sympathy and friendship with the families of the victims in the USA and abroad. This unprecedented terrorist act is an attack on the fundamental human rights to freedom, security and self-determination. It is an attack on the human dignity of all peoples and the basic values of peace and democracy which the international trade union movement has upheld and fought for throughout its entire history. ...
SDF sets initial step into unlimited participation in wars
<http://www.japan-press.co.jp/2260/sdf.html>
NOV 7-NOV 13 Japan Press Service ISSUE
Three military ships of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, a large escort ship carrying helicopters, another escort ship, and a supply ship, on November 9 left Japan for the Indian Ocean. A Pakistani newspaper noted that Japan is sending its warships abroad for the first time for war since the end of WWII. The government has explained that their mission is information-gathering. When these ships arrive at Diego Garcia in two weeks, however, their operations will be in support of U.S. forces. ...
RAWA's appeal to the UN and World community
Now it is confirmed that the Taliban have left Kabul and the Northern Alliance has entered the city.
The world should understand that the Northern Alliance is composed of some bands who did show their real criminal and inhuman nature when they were ruling Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996.
The retreat of the terrorist Taliban from Kabul is a positive development, but entering of the rapist and looter NA in the city is nothing but a dreadful and shocking news for about 2 million residents of Kabul whose wounds of the years 1992-96 have not healed yet.
Thousands of people who fled Kabul during the past two months were saying that they feared coming to power of the NA in Kabul much more than being scared by the US bombing.
The Taliban and Al-Qaeda will be eliminated, but the existence of the NA as a military force would shatter the joyful dream of the majority for an Afghanistan free from the odious chains of barbaric Taliban. The NA will horribly intensify the ethnic and religious conflicts and will never refrain to fan the fire of another brutal and endless civil war in order to retain in power. The terrible news of looting and inhuman massacre of the captured Taliban or their foreign accomplices in Mazar-e-Sharif in past few days speaks for itself.
Though the NA has learned how to pose sometimes before the West as "democratic" and even supporter of women's rights, but in fact they have not at all changed, as a leopard cannot change its spots.
RAWA has already documented heinous crimes of the NA. Time is running out. RAWA on its own part appeals to the UN and world community as a whole to pay urgent and considerable heed to the recent developments in our ill-fated Afghanistan before it is too late.
We would like to emphatically ask the UN to send its effective peace-keeping force into the country before the NA can repeat the unforgettable crimes they committed in the said years.
The UN should withdraw its recognition to the so-called Islamic government headed by Rabbani and help the establishment of a broad-based government based on the democratic values.
RAWA's call stems from the aspirations of the vast majority of the people of Afghanistan.
PASHTUN REBELS: Fighters vow role in Afghan command
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/318/nation/Fighters_vow_role_in_Afghan_command+.shtml>
by Anne Barnard, Boston Globe, 11/14/2001
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Afghan fighters here, loyal neither to the Taliban nor to the Northern Alliance, vowed yesterday to gain a share of power in any new Afghan government through military or political means. The fighters, who belong to the Pashtun ethnic group, said officials and fighters across Afghanistan's largely Pashtun southeast were ready to follow them instead of the Taliban. They said they would soon enter the country to try to take control of that area. As the Taliban retreated with unexpected speed, attention in this border region and across Pakistan focused on the ethnic makeup of a future Afghan government. The main worry is of conflict between the Northern Alliance, an ethnic patchwork of Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, and others, and groups that oppose the Taliban in the Pashtun-dominated south. ...
Bin Laden guessing knows no border
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The more territory that anti-Taliban forces conquer in Afghanistan, the bigger the question gets: Where is Osama bin Laden? The whereabouts of the suspected terrorist remains a mystery, but the stories and rumors have been rampant this week along the porous border that runs between Afghanistan and Pakistan, especially after the Taliban militia mounted a surprisingly quick retreat. Adding to the swirl of speculation about where bin Laden is hiding, Iranian radio reported yesterday that the suspected terrorist had fled into Pakistan's loosely controlled tribal areas. Two Pakistani border officials quickly denied the report and said they believed that bin Laden was in eastern Afghanistan. But they also conceded that no one knows for sure. Sketchy as it was, the Iranian report reflected a growing worry here that bin Laden could flee to Pakistan, bringing the war home to the country that backed the Taliban until Sept. 11. ...
PILGER: THIS WAR IS A FRAUD
<http://mirror.icnetwork.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=11392430&method=full>
by John Pilger, former Mirror chief foreign correspondent, 11/18/01
The war against terrorism is a fraud. After three weeks' bombing, not a single terrorist implicated in the attacks on America has been caught or killed in Afghanistan. Instead, one of the poorest, most stricken nations has been terrorised by the most powerful - to the point where American pilots have run out of dubious "military" targets and are now destroying mud houses, a hospital, Red Cross warehouses, lorries carrying refugees. Unlike the relentless pictures from New York, we are seeing almost nothing of this. Tony Blair has yet to tell us what the violent death of children - seven in one family - has to do with Osama bin Laden. And why are cluster bombs being used? The British public should know about these bombs, which the RAF also uses. They spray hundreds of bomblets that have only one purpose; to kill and maim people. Those that do not explode lie on the ground like landmines, waiting for people to step on them. If ever a weapon was designed specifically for acts of terrorism, this is it. I have seen the victims of American cluster weapons in other countries, such as the Laotian toddler who picked one up and had her right leg and face blown off. Be assured this is now happening in Afghanistan, in your name. None of those directly involved in the September 11 atrocity was Afghani. Most were Saudis, who apparently did their planning and training in Germany and the United States. ...
Arab Detainees Start Hunger Strike
<http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39681-2001Nov16.html>
by Wayne Parry, Associated Press, November 16, 2001
NEWARK, N.J. Angry at being jailed on immigration charges during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, some Arabs detained after the Sept. 11 terror attacks have started a hunger strike, their lawyers say. "They say, 'We have wanted to be with our families for the holy month, and now that's not going to happen,'" said Sohail Mohammed, an immigration lawyer who represents several men who are being held on immigration charges but have been cleared by the FBI of any role in the attacks. The number of people participating in the protest wasn't clear. Two weeks ago, the FBI said 31 detainees remained in INS custody in New Jersey. ...
Army post draws human rights protest
COLUMBUS, Ga. - Thousands of demonstrators marched outside Fort Benning yesterday to protest a former Army school they blame for human rights violations against Latin American civilians. About 40 people were taken into custody. During the annual funeral march to the front gate of the post, protesters carried signs reading ''Imperialist Assassins.'' They created a memorial to the alleged victims of graduates of the School of the Americas, which was a training center for Latin American soldiers. Some stuck crosses through the chain-link fence. ''I wanted to bear witness to these deeds by SOA graduates - to take a stand against terrorism wherever it happens to be,'' said Ralph Armbruster, a social science teacher from Santa Barbara, Calif. About 40 people were taken into custody after they slipped through an opening in a fence and onto base property. Fort Benning spokesman Rich McDowell said they were given letters barring them from the post for five years and released. ''At least eight are second offenders,'' he said. ''They could be prosecuted in federal court.'' The crowd, estimated by police at 6,000 to 7,000, included senior citizens and veterans. The demonstration commemorates the Nov. 16, 1989, killings in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests, to which some of the school's graduates have been linked. With the United States at war against terrorists and Americans riding a patriotic wave, organizers said it was more important than ever to protest. ''We are fighting terrorism out there in other parts of the world, but here we are harboring and training terrorists,'' the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, who founded the School of the Americas Watch in 1990, said Saturday. ...
The Internet Under Siege
<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/issue_novdec_2001/lessig.html>
by Lawrence Lessig, Foreign Policy, November-December, 2001
Who owns the Internet? Until recently, nobody. That's because, although the Internet was "Made in the USA," its unique design transformed it into a resource for innovation that anyone in the world could use. Today, however, courts and corporations are attempting to wall off portions of cyberspace. In so doing, they are destroying the Internet's potential to foster democracy and economic growth worldwide.
The Internet revolution has ended just as surprisingly as it began. None expected the explosion of creativity that the network produced; few expected that explosion to collapse as quickly and profoundly as it has. The phenomenon has the feel of a shooting star, flaring unannounced across the night sky, then disappearing just as unexpectedly. Under the guise of protecting private property, a series of new laws and regulations are dismantling the very architecture that made the Internet a framework for global innovation. ...
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