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Weekly Newsletter of the Green Party of Ohio
Vol. I, No. 27 -- November 24,
2001
(This newsletter distributed to 2,876)
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F E A T U R E D I N T
H I S I S S U E
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1)
GREEN PARTY NAMES NAMES ON FAST TRACK
2) MYERSON HIRED BY GREEN PARTY OF THE
U.S.
3) GERMAN GREENS BACK COALITION
4) STATE OF WORKING OHIO 2001 REPORT
5) GOLDEN SHIELD, POLLS, AND USA PATRIOT ACT
6) PORTLAND ENDORSES UNIVERSAL
HEALTH CARE
7) HEALTH SYSTEM HEADED FOR "MAJOR CRISIS"
8) "VOTE
GREEN" WEB RING
9) GLOBAL RESPONSE
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1) GREEN PARTY NAMES NAMES ON FAST TRACK
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As Congress heads for a one-week recess, Green Party
officials issued a blunt
warning to six congressional
incumbents Nov. 19, promising that Green Party
chal-
lengers will run aggressive campaigns against them
based upon their
support for Fast Track legislation
currently before Congress.
Read
the Nov. 19 news release at:
http://www.greenpartyus.org/press/pr_11_19_01.html
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2) MYERSON HIRED BY GREEN PARTY OF THE U.S.
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Earlier this year, the Steering Committee of the then
Association of State
Green Parties (ASGP) decided that
the work load of preparing for an FEC filing
and the
transition to a federally recognized national party
would require
assistance. Accordingly, the Steering
Committee decided to hire a coordinator
who could
oversee these projects and prepare the ASGP for as
smooth a
transition as possible.
Because
of his long history within the Green Party,
both within the GPUSA and the
ASGP, as well as his
proven track record of successfully organizing the
Green Party Convention in Denver, the Steering
Committee decided to offer
Dean Myerson the position.
Because
of Dean's amazing job performance, the steer-
ing Committee has decided to
hire Dean as the full
time political coordinator for the Green Party of
the U.S. Dean will help the Steering Committee and
the Coordinating Committee
take the next steps in
becoming a true alternative political party in the
United States.
Dean
Myerson can be reached at:
greens@deanmyerson.org
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3) GERMAN GREENS BACK COALITION
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The German Greens began their national conference
Saturday with the subject
of whether to bring down
the German government. Grassroot members could have
forced the party's 47 members of parliament to with-
draw from the ruling
coalition, prompting Schroeder
to seek another partner in government or call
an
early election. However, after a nine-hour debate,
the party chose
to remain a member of the ruling
coalition at this time. The Greens are the
junior
partner in Germany's ruling coalition but many mem-
bers are angry
at Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's
decision to deploy troops in the U.S.-led
war on terror.
To
read the complete CNN article, see:
http://europe.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/11/24/gen.germany.greens/index.html
Visit
the German Green Party Web site at:
http://www.gruene.de
For
information on the German Green Party
in English, see:
http://www.gruene.de/sache/english/
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4) STATE OF WORKING OHIO 2001 REPORT
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Here are the figures on what Ohio's workers made and
didn't make in 2000.
These numbers come from the
State of Working Ohio 2001 report released by
Policy
Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based research institute.
Policy Matters
Ohio produces figures on working
Ohioans every year.
In
2000, the typical Ohio worker made $12.61 an hour,
35 cents above the national
average. The 1990's have
been called an economic victory, with very low levels
of unemployment and several hikes of the federal mini-
mum wage. Yet, workers
did not get their share of the
profit.
While
wages for white workers increased in the late
1990s, black workers' wages
dropped over the entire
decade. Typical wages didn't keep up with extra work
hours, and didn't return to the high levels they
reached in 1979, another
business cycle peak with
high wages we should expect from a booming economy.
The following figures are real wages adjusted for
inflation:
Since
1979, Ohio families added an average
of 500 hours (12 weeks) to their work
year. On average,
single parents doubled their work hours.
Between
1979 and 2000, median hourly wages for all
Ohio workers (taken as a group)
dropped 5.5%. For
black men they dropped a startling 23.3%. White
women's
wages actually increased by 11.4%.
In
2000, Ohio men made a median wage of $14.64 an
hour. Women made $10.80 an
hour, $3.84 less than men.
White men made $15.00 an hour. Black men made $11.44,
a difference of $3.56. White women made $11.00 an hour.
Black women made $10.00,
one dollar less.
Many
try to explain away race gaps in wages, saying
they result from lower education
levels among black
people. However, no matter what level of education,
African American workers made less than white workers
with the same schooling.
Between
1997 and 1999, 71% of all Ohio men received
health insurance from their private-sector
jobs, down
from 85.4% in 1981. 57% of women workers got health
insurance,
down from 63%. 66% of white workers, down
from 77%, got health insurance.
59% of black workers
received health insurance, down from 76%.
Ohio's
high school dropouts made $8.00 an hour in 2000.
High school graduates made
$11.00 an hour. College
graduates made $18.00 an hour. People with postgraduate
degrees made $23.07 an hour. People with a high school
education or less lost
14% of their wages between 1979
and 2000, while college graduates gained 14%.
In
2000, the richest fifth of Ohio's families earned
ten times what the poorest
fifth earned. 31% of black
workers, 32% of female workers, and 22% of all
Ohio
workers earned at or below a poverty-level wage of
$8.47 an hour,
the wage that would bring a family of
four to the federal poverty level with
a full-time job.
Both
unionization and quality education dramatically
reduced wage gaps between
black and white, male and
female workers. Without a union, Ohio's white workers
made 18.7% more than black workers, but among unionized
workers the gap was
almost completely eliminated. While
non-union men made 27% more than non-union
women, the
gap among unionized workers was only 16%.
Black
workers received an average 38% boost in their
wages when they earned high
school degrees, and a
stunning 65% increase with a college or graduate
school degree.
Policy
Matters Ohio recommends increases in the mini-
mum wage, Living Wage and anti-discrimination
legis-
lation, better access to health and child care,
corporate accountability,
and tax laws that are
fairer toward low-income people.
Visit
Policy Matters Ohio at:
http://www.policymattersohio.org
For
the "State of Working Ohio 2001" report see:
http://www.policymattersohio.org/SOWO2001.pdf
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5) GOLDEN SHIELD, POLLS, AND USA PATRIOT ACT
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The U.S. is implementing a surveillance system called
"Golden Shield"
which was designed by the Chinese
Communist Party's police agency to track
its citizens.
"The aim is to integrate a gigantic online database
with an all-encompassing surveillance network, in-
corporating speech and
face recognition, closed cir-
cuit television, smart cards, credit records,
and
Internet surveillance," says Rights & Democracy
researcher
Greg Walton in a recent report.
A
Harris Poll in late September showed 86% favor use
of face-recognition technology
in public places; 68%
favor implementation of a national ID card; and 54%
approve of expanded government monitoring of cell
phones and e-mail.
The USA Patriot Act signed into law Oct. 26 gives
law enforcement a wide swath
of new data collection
powers. The Justice Department recently established
a new federal rule that lets government agents monitor
conversations between
people in federal custody and
their lawyers if the attorney general deems
it "reason-
ably necessary in order to deter future acts of vio-
lence or terrorism."
Additionally,
more than 1,200 people have been de-
tained as part of the federal investigation.
Discrimi-
nation in the workplace has increased.
For articles related to this, see:
Warming
to Big Brother (MSNBC, 11/14/01)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/654959.asp?0cb=-11538746&cp1=1
FREE
SPEECH, R.I.P. (11/20/01)
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11949
60
Israelis on Tourist Visas Detained Since Sept. 11 (11/23/01)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3879-2001Nov22.html
Swept
Up in a Dragnet, Hundreds Sit in Custody and Ask, 'Why?' (11/25/01)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/25/national/25DETA.html?todaysheadlines
After
Sept. 11, Complaints of Job Bias Mount (11/25/01)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/25/national/25DISC.html?todaysheadlines
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6) PORTLAND ENDORSES UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE
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The Portland, Maine, City Council on Nov. 19 voted
6-3 to pass a resolution
endorsing universal health
care in the state. Earlier this month, Portland
voters approved a nonbinding referendum, calling on
the city council to send
a resolution to the
state Legislature in support of universal health care.
The approved resolution, which commits the city to
"work for efforts
to develop a single-payer system,"
will now be forwarded to the state
Legislature as a
petition from Portland residents. The six council
members
who voted to pass the referendum said they
hope it will encourage the passage
of universal
health care in Maine and provide direction for the
rest of
the country to follow.
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7) HEALTH SYSTEM HEADED FOR "MAJOR CRISIS"
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Morton Kondracke writes in his Roll Call column of
Nov. 19 that the health
care system is about to
encounter what the National Coalition on Health Care
calls "a perfect storm." Kondracke cites a variety of
"major
crises" that are "unfolding over health care
costs, delivery and
quality," including the lack of
political will, medical errors (50,000
to 90,000
people die from medical mistakes each year), a focus
on the
bottom line forcing doctors to see more patients
in less time, insufficient
NIH funding, and the nation's
uninsured (health insurance costs will rise
34% between
2000 and 2002, causing six million U.S. residents to
lose
coverage and increasing the number of uninsured
to 45 million).
He
says that the coalition study shows that the
"country needs comprehensive
reform of its health
care delivery system, starting with an insurance
system that covers everyone." Kondracke concludes:
"The coalition
is not recommending any particular
system -- Canadian, employer-based or private
--
but it advocates that work be started on one soon."
While Congress
this year is "doing nothing ...
[s]mart politicians should get the message."
Kondracke's
Roll Call is widely considered the lead-
ing source for Congressional news
and information
both inside the Beltway and beyond. Since 1955, Roll
Call
has been the newspaper of Capitol Hill, giving
Members of Congress a platform
to communicate with
one another across the aisle and between the chambers.
To
read Kondracke's health care article visit:
http://www.rollcall.com/pages/columns/kondracke/00/2001/kond1119.html
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8) "VOTE GREEN" WEB RING
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The "Vote Green" Web ring established in August 2000
consists of
sites that concern Green politics. It's
purpose is to provide a collection
of Green sites
that could serve to inform the public about Green
candidates
and to promote their candidacies. They
are linked together using a "navigator"
that each
member site adds to his/her pages. "Green" designates
the values as well as a current candidate. This is an
entirely independent
Web ring, so it is not subject
to corporate censorship. While acknowledging
the need
for healthy debate about the merits of Green policy,
the ring
does not welcome anti-Green Party sites
unless the values otherwise expressed
in the member
site is of particular relevance to Greens.
Visit
the "Vote Green" Web Ring at:
http://artcontext.org/votegreen/home.php
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9) GLOBAL RESPONSE
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Global Response issues Action Bulletins called Young
Environmentalist's Actions
(for students and teachers,
K-8 grades) and Eco-Club Actions (for high school
students and clubs). In each Action Bulletin, students
learn about a specific
environmental crisis somewhere
in the world, who is working to solve this
problem
(local and international organizations), and how stu-
dents can
help. Each Action Bulletin asks students to
write letters to specific officials
who have the
authority to stop or prevent environmental destruction.
Each
Action Bulletin gives follow-up reports on past
Actions so students learn
how their letters have helped
solve environmental problems around the globe.
Global
Response also offers free Teachers' Packets with ideas
for using
Young Environmentalists Actions and Eco-Club
Actions in the classroom and
in after-school activities.
Visit
Global Response at:
http://www.globalresponse.org
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The views expressed in this newsletter are those
of the author or organization
noted and do not
necessarily reflect the opinions of the Green Party
of
Ohio.
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Ohio by
visiting the newsletter archives at:
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Copyright
© 2001, Green Party of Ohio.
All rights reserved.
Paid for by the
Green Party of Ohio PAC (OH1066)
Gina Ficociello, Treasurer
1427 Northstar
Rd., Columbus OH 43212
Contributions to the Green Party of Ohio are not
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is not authorized by
any candidate or candidate
authorized committee.
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Green Party of Ohio
PO Box 851, Kent OH 44240
Email: secretary@ohiogreens.org
Web: http://www.ohiogreens.org