what is bob avakian’s new synthesis?
PHILLY CONSTRUCTION UNIONS STILL DISCRIMINATE AGAINST BLACK TRADESPEOPLE
from the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER:
Minority union members still struggle to work
So, at a time when the building trades are trying to increase their minority participation, Sturgis, of Clementon, N.J., called the carpenters’ union to help organize the five workers in his group - all of them African American.
The upshot?
Two of the three carpenters who voted in favor of the union were laid off this year by their employer, Westrum Development Co., of Fort Washington.
Although the Dec. 14 election, supervised by the National Labor Relations Board, was secret, the group was small enough that everyone had a pretty good idea of how the votes went - three in favor, one opposed, one contested by the company.
Westrum, whose city projects include Hilltop at Falls Ridge in East Falls, Brewerytown Square, and the Villas at Packer Park, says the layoffs were driven by economic forces that have pummeled the home-building industry.
“It’s a genuine crisis in the whole industry,” said spokesman Kevin Feeley. Westrum had 300 housing starts in 2006, 160 last year and “we’re still at zero this year.”
“We laid off 25 percent of our workforce, about 20 people,” he said. “These were the only two union employees” and they were chosen because work dried up at their projects, not because of their union activity.
The union says the layoffs were retaliatory - and has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board.
“I believe because they wanted to be union - that’s why they were laid off,” said Robert Naughton, director of organizing for the union Sturgis called, the Metropolitan Regional Council of Philadelphia and Vicinity of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners.
“They are very upset,” he said.
Whether the layoffs are because of retaliation or the economy, they illustrate some of the difficulties that construction unions may have in increasing minority membership, a response to Philadelphia’s City Council demands in connection with the $700 million Convention Center expansion.
Unions complain that employers routinely find reasons to fire pro-union workers, even though that practice is illegal. Also, a sagging economy can trump union expansion plans.
Naughton discounts Westrum’s economic theory because, he said, Westrum has already hired outside contractors to do the work, known as “punch” carpentry. Feeley said Westrum had only used those contractors in the past to supplement their own employees’ work in busy periods, but there are no busy periods on the immediate horizon.
“Punch-out” carpenters, like Sturgis and his colleagues who are also known as pre-title pre-warranty technicians, come through the completed homes, acting as all-purpose handymen, troubleshooting and completing any small job that still remains on a punch, or to-do, list.
Now Sturgis wonders whether he’ll be laid off - he’s the most senior of the workers, but also the only remaining pro-union punch carpenter.
“Here is an opportunity for five minorities who want to be in a union and get union benefits,” Naughton said.
“Westrum could have started negotiating then and there. But they hired a labor lawyer and filed objections to the election.” Westrum withdrew its objections Monday.
“We’re ready to negotiate with that bargaining unit,” Feeley said.
Ironically, the Metropolitan Council is one of a handful of local construction unions that have refused to provide its demographic information and diversity goals to City Council.
The refusal of the carpenters to provide the information has angered some council members and many of the leaders of the other construction unions, who resent the carpenters’ union’s special treatment. The carpenters’ union is the largest of all the building trades.
Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.
PHILLY CONSTRUCTION TRADES STILL 80% WHITE - MOST MINORITIES IN LOWEST PAID TRADE, LABORERS
from thePHILADELPHIA INQUIRER:
Unions: Minority membership 20%; most in one trade
However, more than half of the 4,442 minority union members come from Laborers International Union of North America Local 332 - a predominantly African American union.
“There are [minority] numbers from some of these unions that by any standard are quite low,” said Paul Clark, a professor of labor studies at Pennsylvania State University in State College.
“That’s surprising to me, given the labor movement as a whole has been getting increasingly diverse.”
Although 12 out of 15 unions provided statistics, some of the largest did not. Among the missing were the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Metropolitan Regional Council, which has 12,762 members, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, which has 4,543 members.
Electricians chief John J. Dougherty said officials should look at numbers over the last 10 years.
“Does Michael Nutter want to be judged on John Street’s record?” Dougherty offered by way of analogy.
Dougherty said he would cooperate with a new advisory commission on diversity in the construction industry that Mayor Nutter established yesterday, but refused to give numbers to City Council, because, his spokesman said, Council is too political.
The unions provided information on how many of their members were from Philadelphia, and how many were African American, Hispanic, Asian, other, and female.
Nutter said the numbers were an important benchmark but not an excuse to beat up on the unions.
“This is not an exercise in fingerpointing or who did what to whom in the past,” Nutter said.
Nutter asked the 15-member advisory commission to establish the availability of minority workers and create long-term plans for increasing their participation in the industry.
Federal statistics show that building-trades unions in the Philadelphia region are only 8 percent minority, but that includes the whole region.
A recent Inquirer analysis of statistics from the city’s Office of Housing and Community Development on publicly funded projects in Philadelphia showed that 80 percent of the union workers were white and 70 percent lived outside the city.
Only one union, the Laborers, had the majority of its members from Philadelphia. Most had less than one-third.
In their responses, many union leaders pointed out that they draw their membership from wide geographic areas, which could have an effect on their statistics.
“Our council covers 26 counties in Pennsylvania, the entire state of Delaware and South Jersey,” wrote Harry T. Williams, business manager for District Council 21 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
Membership in the painters’ union totaled 5,463. Of those, 105 were African Americans, 244 were Hispanic and three were Asian. Of the 5,463, 1,147 were from Philadelphia.
Union leaders say their members earn enough money that they can live where they choose.
“What if we say that nobody from Philadelphia can work in Montgomery, New Jersey and Bucks?” asked Patrick Eiding, who heads the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization.
Public-relations executive A. Bruce Crawley, a veteran of minority-inclusion battles, said the numbers were important “because when we say unions are going to do their best effort, we need to know what the total capacity and availability [of minority workers] are.”
Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. said he understood why some unions had been reluctant to give their numbers. He compared it to an unwanted trip to the doctor, “because they have to get naked and exposed to some of their inadequacies,” Jones said. “But that’s the first step in getting well.”
Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.
election ‘08 - bamboozling you into the empire
from REVOLUTION newspaper [http://revcom.us/]:
Election ’08:
Bamboozling You into the Empire
Change. How can anyone look around the world and not want change? Five years of war in Iraq leaving over one million Iraqis dead and five million displaced from their homes. Half of the planet lives on less than $2 a day. Within the United States, the net worth of the average Black family is one-tenth that of a white family. Torture is being legitimized and practiced by the U.S. at Guantánamo, Bagram and at secret prisons around the world. The U.S. government is spying on the people in unprecedented ways. Global warming threatens the very future of life.
The candidacy of Barack Obama promises change. and many have been attracted to his campaign, especially among young people and Black people, filling stadiums and bringing record numbers to the polls.
But you are being bamboozled. You are being lied to. And you are being enlisted in legitimating, complying with, and furthering murderous crimes.
Those who are BEING SWEPT UP IN Obama or Clinton need to ask some hard questions.
The operative point in Obama’s blathering about “no conservative America, no liberal America, just the United States of America” is that we are supposed to identify not with the interests of humanity, not with the interests of the people of the world, but as “Americans,” who patriotically support the U.S. imperialist ruling class in their contention with oppositional forces around the world. And that leads to support for the “war on terror” and all the horrors that has brought to the world—including the fostering of Islamic fundamentalist forces even as it wages war on them.
Obama’s “change” is about putting an acceptable and different face on the coffins of millions of Iraqis, on the orange jumpsuits that have become an international symbol for American-made torture, on the increased role of the Bible in government, and on the increased surveillance that heightens the whole “watch what you say” atmosphere.
Hope and raised sights are genuinely needed in the world today, but the hope in Obama is a false and harmful one.
First off, if you honestly look at what they are saying, neither Obama nor Clinton is even trying to speak about the most pressing issues confronting humanity. And they couldn’t do anything about all that even if they did want to—which they don’t. To really address the massive inequality and poverty in the world, or to solve global environmental problems, requires a radical restructuring of the economic, social, and political relations; this is something that neither of these candidates represents, or could represent. Just encouraging a spirit of public service won’t cut it—and will actually work against the kind of fundamental change needed, in effect putting band-aids on a cancer. But, even short of that, do either of these candidates represent a fundamental break with the trajectory of war and repression that the U.S. has been on over the last period?
Iraq and Foreign Policy
Let’s look at the war in Iraq. The United States is an empire. The relative stability of the ruling class (compared to the rest of the world) rests on the domination of U.S. capital, and that rests on the unchallengeability of U.S. military might. That—and not any supposed concern for “the mess we made”—is why no candidate who has been allowed to get this far in the race is for immediate and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, let alone Afghanistan. It is why Obama, Clinton, and McCain all support U.S. military threats against Iran.
Obama makes a big deal about how he opposed the war from the start. Maybe so, but his objections were not principled opposition to pre-emptive war on oppressed nations, but concerns over whether this would “work”—i.e., whether it would be a military and political success for the U.S. empire. And now that the U.S. is in Iraq, Obama says he wants a phased withdrawal from Iraq and if elected he will begin pulling out troops and hopes to have all troops out in 16 months. But he refuses to pledge that four years after being in office he will have all U.S. troops out of Iraq.
Obama is right in line with all the other “credible” candidates in supporting the Bush doctrine of preventive war. For example saying this is the “right battlefield,” Obama said he would order U.S. military strikes on targets in Pakistan if President Musharraf did not target Taliban presence in the country’s tribal areas. “If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won’t act we will,” Obama said. (New York Times, 8/2/2007)
The United States now spends more money on its military than all the nations on earth combined; yet both Obama and Clinton have called for even more money for the military. Columnist Robert Scheer writes, “Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have treated the military budget as sacrosanct with their Senate votes and their campaign rhetoric.” (Truthdig, 2/6/2008). Obama calls for adding 92,000 more troops to the U.S. military. His website says, “it is essential that our military continues to be the best in the world.” And again, this is because in a world dominated by capitalism, military might enforces the dominant position of U.S. imperialism. Imagine how everything that holds the oppressive, exploitive system in this country would unravel if that domination was undermined.
Obama is surrounding himself with foreign policy advisors who are tested operatives of U.S. imperialism. One of Obama’s key foreign policy advisors is Anthony Lake, who was National Security Advisor to Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997, and who also played a role in the sanctions against Iraq which killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. And then there’s Zbigniew Brzezinski, another top Obama policy advisor, who as Carter’s National Security Advisor was responsible for, among other crimes, giving political and military support to the Indonesian dictator Suharto to wage a genocidal campaign against the people of East Timor, killing tens of thousands.
When the Military Commissions Act—which allows the President to decide what constitutes torture, indefinitely hold people without trial, put people to death based on “evidence” obtained by torture, among many other things—was being debated in the Senate, Obama voted against it. But Obama, like Clinton and all other Democratic senators, refused to filibuster to stop this law from going into effect. Obama said, “The problem with this bill is not that it’s too tough on terrorists. The problem with this bill is that it’s sloppy.” Calling this bill—which fundamentally changed rights as fundamental as habeas corpus that go back hundreds of years—“sloppy” is like criticizing Hitler for bad penmanship. Obama went on to say that he didn’t oppose military commissions trying the detainees, only that these commissions hadn’t been adequately thought through. And both Obama and Clinton supported the original Patriot Act and its renewal.
Obama’s Role
How then, should we understand Obama’s real differences with things McCain is saying (Obama speaks of trying to disengage from Iraq in a way that will preserve U.S. interests, while McCain talks about staying a hundred years)? First, underlying these disagreements are common shared assumptions: that U.S. “global interests” must be perpetuated and that the U.S. must defeat Islamic fundamentalist forces in the Middle East that stand as obstacles to U.S. control of this strategic region.
Beyond that, to understand Obama’s role we have to look behind the Wizard of Oz curtain to see how elections are used to play people into identifying with a system that does not represent their interests. One way this is done is by having two kinds of candidates running for president: There are the ones who are allowed into the early rounds of debates and caucuses to reflect real desires and demands of the people. These candidates are then rather quickly weeded out; their role is to draw people into the process before being “bait-and-switched” to another candidate who is deemed a “realistic” choice.
Right now Obama is playing something of an unusual, dual role. First, he is being positioned as a serious candidate by some forces in the ruling class—he raised $30 million in one month and that is not just “grassroots” support. There are forces positioning him, and arguments being made that he would be the best president to rally the patriotism of the masses behind the U.S. domestic and international agenda in the coming period. (See “Andrew Sullivan on Obama: The ‘Best Face’ for Imperialism,” Revolution #118, 2/3/2008.)
But he is also playing the role of the candidate who ropes people into the process. So some of the things he promises, like the rebuilding of New Orleans on a basis that takes into account its long history as a center of African-American culture and the needs of its people, are the kind of thing he can say now, but will slip away if he actually becomes president. In that case, he would serve as the head of a system that is driven by the insane logic of accumulating profit and all the thinking that goes with that. And Obama’s being Black will have nothing to do with it, one way or another—this is a country in which the system of capitalism and white supremacy have been tied together since the “birth of the nation.” If it so happens that having a Black president will best reinforce the oppression of the Black masses, then this system can do that. If you don’t believe that, look at the history of the Black mayors in America—including people like Wilson Goode of Philadelphia, who signed off on the bombing of a Black neighborhood there in 1985 which took the lives of 11 people, five of them children, and destroyed 61 homes.
And there is the possibility that Clinton, not Obama, will get the nomination, and the “new grassroots” people he has brought into the system will be channeled into Hillary Clinton’s establishment-as-usual campaign. Because once they’ve got you there, what else are you going to do? Support a Republican?
If You Want Real Change…
There is nothing good for the people in any of this and much that is harmful. We are told that the elections are the realistic way to change things. We are told that if we don’t join in all of this we are just being cynical or worse. In reality it is the process of elections that uses people’s hopes and dreams to draw them into identifying with and supporting the system and its crimes that they originally opposed. There is nothing more cynical than that.
But there is something that we can do if we want real change. We can demand that this government STOPS torturing people, STOPS spying on people, STOPS waging its wars for empire. STOPS destroying the planet. We can—and must—get much more active in resisting this, and in doing so, rupturing with the whole political framework that extinguishes resistance and confines protest to what the-powers-that-be find acceptable. And you can get out this paper that has a real alternative in its pages—a revolutionary solution that gets to the roots of this problem, a radical movement aiming to bring about such a revolution, and a far better society without the exploitation and oppression and divisions that are bred into the bone of this one. That is something to dream about and to fight for.
Hillary Is the One Who Can Stand Up to the Republicans?
Give Us a Fucking Break!
Hillary Clinton claims she is the one who can stand up to the Republican attack machine. Please! Hillary Clinton has gone along with, rolled over in the face of, or actively supported Bush and the Republicans in essence on every substantial issue.
The War: After all the lies that have been exposed, all the horrors that have been unleashed, Hillary Clinton will still not say that she was wrong to vote to authorize Bush to invade Iraq! Before the war, she even voted against the Levin Amendment that would have asked the United Nations to approve authorization of force against Saddam Hussein before the U.S. invaded, because she said it would have made the U.S. “subordinate” to the United Nations. She says Bush’s “surge” of sending in more troops is “working,” and that the problem with Bush is “We’re just years too late in changing our tactics.” Clinton’s promises to withdraw troops from Iraq are vague, open-ended, and would leave U.S. bases in Iraq in any event. And recently she voted to put elements of the Iranian army on the U.S. “terrorist” list—ratcheting up and justifying threats of a U.S. military attack on Iran.
Torture: How is Hillary Clinton going to stand up to the Republicans on torture when her position is at least as pro-torture as McCain’s? Speaking to the New York Daily News editorial board on October 11, 2006, Clinton said she recognized that in some situations interrogations called for “severity.” According to Daily News columnist Elizabeth Benjamin, “[I]t emerged that she’s not actually against torture in all instances, and that her dispute with McCain and Bush is largely procedural.” On Guantánamo, she just wants to move it somewhere.
Government Spying and Repression: Clinton voted FOR the USA Patriot Act in October 2001 when it was first enacted. Then in March 2006 she voted to renew it. She supports making flag-burning as a form of political protest illegal. And don’t forget that the foundation for the post-9/11 attacks on civil liberties was laid by Bill Clinton’s 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Clinton (like Obama) refused to filibuster the Military Commissions Act that fundamentally overturns habeas corpus. And nobody is going to outdo Clinton in upholding the criminalization of Black people and the imprisonment of 2.3 million people in the U.S. According to ABC News, Clinton aides recently fed the network a story attacking Obama because in the past he said he was opposed to mandatory minimum sentences for federal crimes.
Ann “We Should Invade Their Countries, Kill Their Leaders and Convert Them to Christianity” Coulter has said she would campaign for Hillary Clinton over John McCain. The point is not “guilt by association,” much less that John “100 Years Of War” McCain is a positive alternative to anything. But this Medieval fascist has a point when she says that Hillary voted for the war, supports the “surge,” is not against torture and is a good fit for her (Coulter’s) politics.
SEVERAL LABORERS UNION OFFICERS CAUGHT IN GAMBINO FAMILY ARRESTS - corrected headline
F.B.I. agents with Domenico Cefalu, an alleged member of the Gambino crime family, in New York on Thursday.
In the largest sweep in recent memory, federal and New York State authorities on Thursday rounded up scores of accused organized crime figures who were indicted on charges including murder, racketeering, construction extortions and the looting of union benefit funds.
Back Story With William K. Rashbaum (mp3)
More than 80 people — among them the entire Gambino family hierarchy and reputed figures from the Genovese and Bonanno families — are named in two indictments, along with union and construction industry officials.
The charges were announced this morning at a news conference by the United States attorney for Brooklyn, Benton J. Campbell, and officials from nearly a dozen other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
By 2 p.m., 75 people were already in custody, including the Gambino family’s acting underboss, Domenico Cefalu, and consigliere, Joseph Corozzo, the officials said. The acting boss, who prosecutors identified as John D’Amico, known as Jackie the Nose, has not yet been picked up and several officials said he was believed to be on vacation.
“For those whose image of organized crime is that of ‘The Godfather,’ or, more recently of course, ‘The Sopranos,’ today’s indictment serves as a startling reminder that organized crime is not fiction,” said John S. Pistole, the F.B.I. deputy director. In fact, it is real, it is alive, and it is a pervasive threat to the citizens of New York City and New York State.”
The charges, which are being brought in United States District Court in Brooklyn and state Supreme Court in Queens, also include charges of seven murders — three dating back more than a quarter century — along with racketeering, extortion and state gambling charges, officials said.
“This investigation was extraordinary in that it penetrated the inner workings of the Gambino family and simultaneously reached back in time to hold several members of the Gambino family accountable for their prior crimes,” Mr. Campbell said at the news conference on Thursday.
The crimes charged in the federal indictment span three decades and include racketeering conspiracy, murder, extortion, theft of union benefits loan-sharking, securities fraud, conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana, money laundering and illegal gambling.
Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, who oversees the Organized Crime Task Force, said the case was built in large part with the aid of an informer who won the confidence of Gambino crime family figures and helped record hundreds of hours of mob conversations.
“The message today is clear: organized crime still exists in the city and the state of New York,” Mr. Cuomo said. “We like to think that it’s a vestige of the past. It’s not. It is as unrelenting as weeds that continue to sprout in the cracks of society.
“The second message, which is equally clear,” he added, “is that we will not rest until organized crime is a distant memory in New York.”
The arrests by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and investigators from several other agencies were coordinated with a sweep that netted 23 accused organized crime figures in Palermo, Sicily. Those charges are not directly linked to the New York arrests, but Italian officials who were in New York at the news conference said they were part of a new American-Italian strategy aimed at severing the close cooperative relationship between the Gambino family and the Sicilian mob.
In addition to Mr. D’Amico, Mr. Cefalu and Mr. Corozzo, the 80-count federal indictment charges three Gambino captains and three acting captains, who serve among the family’s midlevel managers, along with 16 dozen soldiers, officials said. A large number of family associates are also being charged.
The construction extortion aspects of the investigation, which began more than three years ago, focused on the trucking industry, which hauls away dirt excavated from major construction projects in and around the city, said Gordon S. Heddell, inspector general of the United States Labor Department. Several union officials were also charged in a scheme to steal union benefits. Mr. Heddell, whose office investigates labor racketeering, said his agents were instrumental in starting the investigation.
“This investigation exposed the alleged grip that the Gambino organized crime family has had over one of the largest construction markets in the United States, from small private projects to large scale public works contracts,” he said. “This involved the trucks that move construction material and debris throughout the entire New York City region — the cement that is poured to build house foundations out in Staten Island, the general contractors who are responsible for building condominiums over in New Jersey and even a proposed Nascar raceway.”
Among those charged were an executive involved in the speedway project, William Kilgannon, and another man involved in the project, Todd Polakoff, who took a $9,000 payoff from a trucking executive, according to court papers.
Also charged was Anthony Delvescovo, a project manager and director of tunnel operations for the Schiavone Construction Company, a heavy construction firm that has worked on major public works projects in the New York area, according to the indictment.
Four trucking company executives, from companies including SRD Contracting, Firehawk Enterprises, Jo-Tap Industries, Andrews Trucking and Dump Masters of NY Inc., were also charged.
The trucking firms were licensed by the New York City’s Business Integrity Commission, an agency that oversees private carting companies and businesses that haul construction debris. The commission, which also had a role in the investigation, was expected to move to revoke the companies’ licenses today.
The charges against Mr. Kilgannon and Mr. Polakoff stem from an aborted plan to build a Nascar track in Staten Island, where site preparation work was done. But the project was never completed because racing officials scuttled the plan in the face of community opposition, officials said.
Also the subject of extortions was the Liberty View Harbor project in Jersey City, the officials said.
The seven murders include five that prosecutors are charging were committed by one Gambino soldier, Charles Carneglia, between 1976 and 1990, officials said. The first was the slaying of Albert Gelb, a highly decorated court officer who arrested Mr. Carneglia in a Queens diner after noticing he was carrying a pistol. Mr. Gelb was shot four days before he was to testify against Mr. Carneglia in that case.
The last was the killing of an armored car guard, Jose Delgado Rivera, who was shot in the back during a robbery, the officials said.
In addition to the F.B.I., the Labor Department and the Organized Crime Task Force, a number of other agencies were involved in the investigation, including the Waterfront Commission, the New York Police Department and the office of the Staten Island district attorney, Daniel J. Donovan. The case was based in large part on the hundreds of hours of secretly recorded conversations made by the informant, a construction executive.
In the state case, brought by the office of the Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, 26 people were charged with gambling, loan-sharking and promoting prostitution, officials said. Twenty of the people had been arrested by about 10 a.m., officials said.
The leadership of the family — Mr. D’Amico, Mr. Cefalu and Mr. Corozzo — were all charged in federal court with racketeering conspiracy and extortion and, if convicted, face up to 20 years in prison on multiple counts.
Feds bust 62 reputed Gambino mobsters
- | joseph.mallia@newsday.com and anthony.destefano@newsday.com
- 1:40 PM EST, February 7, 2008
The top leadership of the Gambino crime family was being rounded up by FBI agents Thursday in New York City, New Jersey and Italy, with a focus on seven unsolved murders, and construction and labor union racketeering, officials said.
The case is built in part on conversations secretly recorded by a confidential informant during a three-year infiltration of the Gambino family.
Among the 62 suspects named in an 80-count indictment is Jack D’Amico, who is considered the “street boss” of the family, sources said. Also targeted for arrest were family consigliere Joseph Corozzo and underboss Domenico Cefalu, the sources said. Six captains and 15 soldiers are also under arrest or are being sought, including Nicholas Corozzo
The main thrust of the investigation is centered on racketeering and extortion in construction industry trucking, in particular involving the South Street ferry terminal in Manhattan, sources said.
“The indictment charges racketeering conspiracy, extortion, theft of union benefits, mail fraud, false statements, loan-sharking, embezzlement of union funds, money laundering and illegal gambling,” according to a statement released by Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Benton Campbell.
Gambino family members also face robbery, securities fraud and cocaine distribution charges.
The suspects are also accused of extorting construction companies at in New Jersey, Staten Island and other areas of the metro area.
Five of the seven unsolved murders are said to be linked to Charles Carneglia, a longtime associate of the late Gambino boss John Gotti. Of these, one of the murders is the 1976 slaying of court officer Albert Gelb of Brooklyn State Supreme Court; another is that of Louis DiBono, a former Gambino family member who fell afoul of Gotti when he didn’t show up for a meeting.
John Gotti Jr. is not among those targeted for arrest, the sources said.
The defendants are:
Joseph Agate, 60, Vincent Amarante, 60, Jerome Brancato, 76, Thomas Cacciopoli, 58, Frank Cali, 42, Nicholas Calvo, 52, Charles Carneglia, 61, Joseph Casiere, 72, Mario Cassarino, 42, Domenico Cefalu, 61, Joseph Chirico, 63, Joseph Corozzo, 66, Nicholas Corozzo, 67, Gino Cracolici, 56, John D’Amico, 73, Sarah Dauria, 33, Vincent Decongilio, Anthony Delvescovo, 51, Leonard Dimaria, 66, Vincent Donnis, 38, Vincent Dragonetti, 43, Robert Epifania, 60, Cody Farrell, 29, Russell Ferrisi, 41, Louis Filippelli, 41, Ronald Flam, 35, Joseph Gaggi, 45, Abid Ghani, 42, Anthony Giammarino, 56, Richard G. Gotti, 40, Vincent Gotti, 55, Ernest Grillo, 51, Christopher Howard, Steven Iaria, 43, Eddie James, 49, John Kasgorgis, William Kilgannon, 49, Michael King, 41, Anthony Licata, 39, Louis Mosca, 62, Lance Moskowitz, 54, Anthony O’Donnell, 43, James Outerie, 54, Vincent Pacelli, 64, John Pisano, 49, Todd Polakoff, 30, Guilio Pomponio, 45, Richard Ranieri, 51, John Regis, 27, Jerry Romano, 49, Angelo Ruggiero Jr., 35, Steven Sabella, 41, Anthony Scibelli, 57, Augustus Sclafani, 67, Joseph Scopo, 31, William Scotto, 40, Edward Sobol, 41, Joseph Spinnato, 42, Michael Urciuoli, 46, Frank Vassallo, 38, Tara Vega, 35 and Arthur Zagari, 60.
Pervaiz Shallwani contributed to this story.
IT’S STILL VERY DIFFICULT FOR WOMEN CARPENTERS TO GET AND KEEP WORK
from the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER:
Women seek tools for building trades
A panel focused on getting union jobs.
Because women are so rare in the building trades, it may look that way, but Barnett knows differently.
For 10 years, she’s been a union carpenter - now she works doing carpentry at a local refinery. But, she said, “It’s very difficult for women to [get and keep] work.”
Today, City Council is expected to decide whether gender- and racial-diversity plans submitted by the unions pass muster. The issue has been holding up the $700 million expansion of the Convention Center.
Barnett and a number of female carpenters, mechanics and glaziers speaking last week on a panel assembled by the Coalition of Labor Union Women said they would be waiting to see what happened.
Why?
Because, they’ve heard this all before and they believe little has changed in a quarter-century.
Speaking to a mostly female, racially diverse audience of about 70, the women described obstacles they had faced every step along the way.
Much of the public focus has been on unions, the panelists noted, but they said there were plenty of people to blame - from union contractors who suddenly have no work when a woman shows up on a construction site to fellow workers who make life especially difficult for a female newbie.
And then there’s society at large, as panelist Kathleen Haskey, 49, a union carpenter and filmmaker, pointed out.
Expect challenges anytime a woman enters a nontraditional occupation, said Haskey, now a site-safety supervisor at a Center City condominium-conversion project.
“People are trying to make it as if organized labor is a bunch of sexist men who want to keep everybody down. Well honey, go to an office,” she said.
“At the end of eight hours of work, I am going to walk away with X-amount of dollars. It’s in the [union] contract, and nobody else is making anything different. If I went to the Fortune 500 world, I wouldn’t know what the person next to me was making.”
Obstacles aside, five of the six panelists said they would do it again.
“It’s hard, heavy work,” said Stephanie McClendon, 36, a mechanic with Local 252 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. “The cold is brutal. It just goes through you. But the money is good.”
Like McClendon, a former bank teller and data clerk from Philadelphia’s Overbrook section, the other panelists said they made good money in the trades - enough to buy homes and cars, raise their children and send them to college.
They urged one young high school woman, brought to the event by her grandmother, to see the trades as a step on a career ladder. Haskey, for example, said she has achieved training, through the union and union contractors, that has allowed her to advance.
Carpenters Haskey and Barnett both started through programs to increase minority and female participation in the trades.
Their union, the Philadelphia Regional Council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, requires potential apprentices to pass a test and then find sponsors among union contractors. Most other building-trade unions make the placements for their apprentices.
In all cases, sponsor-contractors pay apprentices while they finish a combination of on-the-job training and classroom work.
Barnett’s sponsor was the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s minority-apprentice program. Haskey’s was a contractor who called the union seeking female carpenters so it could qualify to bid on a Schuylkill Expressway project.
“That got me in the door,” said Haskey, a former resident of West Philadelphia who moved to Salem County, N.J. “It was my gumption that kept me there.”
Once apprentices become journeymen, the process for getting work varies from union to union. Also, jobs come and go, as buildings are built.
Sometimes leads for the next job will come from the union hall, when contractors need more bodies. Sometimes contractors keep on their best workers, moving them to new projects.
Sometimes, as carpenter Margarita Padin said, it’s a matter of networking - getting leads from contacts within the union and from outside organizations such as community-development groups that want female and minority participation on their projects.
Still, it’s not easy.
Union carpenters usually need to find their own work among union contractors.
Barnett remembers times she would go from job site to job site looking for work, but “we were told they were not hiring” - even when white-male carpenters vouched for her abilities.
Padin said it was not enough to give speeches and set quotas. More important is to investigate the many reasons why more women and minorities are not in the trades, and then fix those problems. But, she said, don’t blame it on the women.
“What are the things that make people not want to be there?” she asked. “Why wouldn’t someone want to be in the union and make $35 an hour?”
Women definitely want this kind of work, said Cassie O’Connell. O’Connell, 36, a nonunion carpenter and site supervisor for Philadelphia’s Habitat for Humanity, spoke up during the question-and-answer session at Wednesday’s event - “Challenges and Rewards: Women in Non-Traditional Jobs. A Journey Toward Economic Independence.”
The panel was a benefit for Women Against Abuse and included a showing of Haskey’s documentary on female carpenters, titled Sisters of Philadelphia.
O’Connell told the audience that she directed the work of a half-dozen Habitat for Humanity workers from AmeriCorps, a paid community-service program. Five of the six are women, and all signed up because they wanted to work in construction.
Many of them are motivated by what motivates her. “I like to work with my hands,” she said later. “And I like seeing something tangible at the end of the day.”
Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.
NYC PAINTERS UNION SUES CARPENTERS, OVER DRYWALL TAPING WORK
from the NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD:
DATE: December 20, 2007
TO: Alvin Blyer, Regional Director
Region 29
FROM: Barry J. Kearney, Associate General Counsel Division of Advice SUBJECT: Drywall Tapers & Pointers of Greater New York, Local 1974, affiliated with 584-1200International Brotherhood of Painters 584-1250-2500and Allied Trades, AFL-CIO 584-1250-5000(Contractors Association of Greater 584-2583-3300New York) 584-3740-1700Cases 29-CE-132, 29-CC-1496 584-500029-CC-1497, 29-CC-1498, 584-504229-CC-1499, 29-CC-1500 Upon the conclusion of federal court litigation, these cases were resubmitted for advice as to whether the Respondent Union violated Section 8(b)(4)(A) by filing a lawsuit to enforce an arbitral body’s decision that would require general contractors to subcontract all work within the Union’s jurisdiction only to employers whose employees are represented by the Union. The Region further seeks advice as to whether a settlement agreement signed by contractors and the resulting consent orders violate Section 8(e). We conclude that the Region should dismiss the Section 8(b)(4)(A) charges because the Union’s lawsuit, which has survived motions to dismiss, is reasonably based and thus cannot be deemed unlawful. Further, the Region should dismiss the Section 8(e) allegation because the award of work to Local 1974 that was initially granted by an arbitral body and subsequently codified in the consent agreements is protected under the construction industry proviso to Section 8(e). FACTS The background facts to this case can be found in our February 7, 2006, Advice memorandum. Briefly, this matter concerns Respondent Drywall Tapers Local 1974’s repeated attempts to resolve a long-running dispute between it and other unions regarding jurisdiction over certain drywall finishing work in New York City. In 1978, an arbitral body known as the New York Plan for the Settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes (”the Plan”) awarded the work to Local 1974. Despite the award and subsequent judicial enforcements, since that time Local 1974’s rivals have continued to represent drywall finishing employees. To resolve Local 1974’s most recent lawsuit for enforcement, on December 16, 2005, Local 1974 and various contractors entered into consent injunctions in which the employers agreed that they were enjoined from assigning drywall finishing work for projects located within New York in contravention of the Plan’s award of the work to Local 1974. In addition to agreeing to be bound to the decisions of the Plan, each of the settlement agreements contained specific language setting the terms and conditions of employment for any employees performing drywall finishing work for the signatory employers, or their “affiliates, contractors, or subcontractors of any tier,” including rates of pay and benefits for those employees. The agreements also required the employers to employ a Local 1974 steward at each jobsite, compensating the steward at the “standard wage and benefit package set forth in the applicable collective bargaining agreement[.]” Charging Party Carpenters Local 52 and Nastasi & Associates, one of the contractors that executed a settlement agreement with Local 1974, separately appealed the district court’s approval of the consent injunction. On May 16, 2007, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied Nastasi’s appeal of the Consent Order, noting that such appeals by signatories are generally unavailable, being deemed as waived. Furthermore, inasmuch as the district court had not granted Local 52 intervenor status prior to its filing of an appeal to the entry of the Consent Order, the Second Circuit refused to rule on the merits of its appeal. Instead, the court remanded the matter to the district court, thereby restoring its jurisdiction and enabling it to adjudicate the merits of Local 52’s original intervention motion. On September 18, 2007, the district court denied Local 52’s Motion to Intervene on grounds that, inter alia, it was not timely filed. Rejecting Local 52’s arguments, the judge found that a delay of nearly five months before Local 52 sought to intervene was due to the fact that it made a strategic choice in selecting the NLRB as the forum in which to assert its position. The net result of the appeals was that the Second Circuit never addressed the Charging Party’s arguments that are central to our determination here, i.e., that Local 1974’s attempt to enforce the jurisdictional award was not protected by the construction industry proviso to Section 8(e). ACTION
First, we conclude that Local 1974’s lawsuit to enforce the Plan’s award of work is not violative of Section 8(b)(4)(A) because it is reasonably based. In its decision on remand in BE & K, a majority of the Board held that the filing and maintenance of a reasonably based lawsuit does not violate the Act, regardless of whether the lawsuit is ongoing or completed, and regardless of the motive for the lawsuit.[1] In determining whether a lawsuit is reasonably based, the Board explicitly adopted the standard set forth by the Supreme Court in the antitrust context. That is, “a lawsuit lacks a reasonable basis, or is ‘objectively baseless,’ only if ‘no reasonable litigant could realistically expect success on the merits.’”[2]
Here, Local 1974’s lawsuit to enforce the Plan’s jurisdictional award clearly is reasonably based. The lawsuit was meritorious, resulting in a judicial enforcement and culminating in the judicially-sanctioned Consent Orders of December 2005. Nevertheless, Local 52 and argue that this meritorious suit seeks to obtain and enforce an unlawful no-subcontracting clause that is not privileged by the construction industry proviso to Section 8(e). They contend that because they do not employ unit employees or otherwise have a collective bargaining relationship with Local 1974 or any other union that would bind them to the Plan, the jurisdictional awards are inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s decision in Connell,[3] which requires that restrictive subcontracting clauses in the construction industry have some relation to a bona fide collective bargaining relationship. The district court has already rejected this argument in a September 9, 2005 order in which it determined that the Plan was an agreement arising out of a collective bargaining relationship between multi-employer and multi-union associations to which the parties were bound. Inasmuch as the Second Circuit did not and will not address the Charging Party’s arguments to the contrary on appeal, they are unavailing here to establish that Local 1974’s lawsuit was baseless and thus violative of Section 8(b)(4)(A). Second, we conclude that the contention that the consent orders themselves contain an unlawful no-subcontracting clause under Section 8(e) is meritless. The provisions apply only to work performed at the site of a construction project and thus falls under the construction industry proviso unless, as the Charging Parties contend, they bear no relation to a bona fide collective bargaining relationship. As set forth above, the district court has held that the Plan’s award of work was made within the context of a collective bargaining relationship. Moreover, the consent orders themselves set terms and conditions of employment for employees working in the affected industry in New York. Thus, they set rates of pay and benefits for those employees, and designate the employment of a Local 1974 steward at each jobsite under contractually defined wages and benefits. Inasmuch as the consent injunctions on their face incorporate the results of bargaining over mandatory terms and conditions, they satisfy the Connell Court’s requirements of a link to a collective bargaining relationship. Accordingly, the Region should dismiss the submitted charges, absent withdrawal. B.J.K.
the road back to jena, la
from REVOLUTION newspaper [http://revcom.us]:
Comments From Our Readers
The Road Back to Jena, Louisiana
Editors’ note: This letter was selected from reader comments and correspondence to Revolution. We’re printing it (and will continue to print more correspondence) to give readers a sense of the letters sent to Revolution, and to spark more interactivity between this paper and readers, and among readers. Selecting and printing letters does not imply that we agree, or disagree, with them.
We received the following correspondence from Chicago:
My first trip to Jena there were many, many people from around the country with a rainbow of T-shirts showing their hatred about hangman’s nooses, walking through a southern town many of them didn’t know existed until they heard about three hangman’s nooses hanging from a tree because six Black students sat under a tree for shade to get a breeze to cool out on a hot day.
Here it is, the year 2008. A white supremacist group decided to march in Jena and stand on the courthouse steps with guns and hangman’s nooses to remind the people of the heinous and cowardly racist crimes this country, America, committed against a people—to terrorize the people of Jena if they came forth to make a stand for justice.
So people went to Jena to make their voices heard against the white supremacist group. To want to stand on court house steps on Martin Luther King’s day of celebration because he marched and protested against racism, because his voice was heard around the world. To try to silence us as these racist cowards made a stand to remind the township of Jena what they represented.
The history about the hangman’s nooses is a part of history that will never, never be forgotten because you cut down a tree that six Black students stood under. To make a stand against white supremacy groups was well worth the trip. To come from around the country to show and give our support to this town, Jena, means a lot to me and other people who were there and those that could not be there.
I met some high school students from St. Louis who came to be there to make a stand with us. It let me know that our answers and our voices were truly heard loud and clear—and how important this paper, Revolution, is. Because maybe the local newspapers and news reporters will not tell the story about the white supremacist group with their ropes and guns and their confederate flags flying high.
But we will tell the story about the day we went back to Jena to drive out their message of hate with the necessary unity and words of encouragement. When I think about Jena and the hangman’s nooses the song by the great jazz singer Billie Holiday gives sad voice to its evil. In her version of “Strange Fruit” which she first sang in 1939:
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit.
Blood on leaves and blood at root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from poplar trees.”
In remembrance of my cousin and others found hanging and swinging in the trees. Forever will be remembered—never, never forgotten. My cousin was found hanging in his bathroom in a rural town in the North near a military base where he was stationed to serve his country. If he don’t get no justice there will be no peace. Justice for the Jena 6. We got your back. We want a better world.
Sister Soldier
from harlem to jena
from REVOLUTION newspaper:
From Harlem to Jena
Editors’ note: This letter was selected from reader comments and correspondence to Revolution. We’re printing it (and will continue to print more correspondence) to give readers a sense of the letters sent to Revolution, and to spark more interactivity between this paper and readers, and among readers. Selecting and printing letters does not imply that we agree, or disagree, with them.
It’s a long way from the concrete sidewalks of New York City to the back roads of Jena, Louisiana. But, for the second time in less than five months, the Harlem Revolution Club decided to make that journey.
The last time—September 20, 2007—the club joined tens of thousands who converged on Jena to demand “Free the Jena 6!” This time around, our club took up the call of the January 21st Committee to come to Jena. The Klansmen was coming with their nooses, confederate flags, and guns demanding “Jail the
Jena 6”—“No more Martin Luther King Holiday” and “Down with Communism.” We had to go down to help politically drown out these racists and make it known that we will not tolerate white supremacy in any form and to stand with all those willing to stand up. We wanted to make it known that we need a revolution and a communist society and an end to the horrors of KKK-style white supremacy.
Just like last time, the club went to people on the streets of Harlem, into the schools and even on the subway to raise the funds to go to Jena and to get the masses themselves involved in this struggle. That mobilization for the Jena 6 rally in September is what actually got me involved with the Harlem Revolution Club, so I understood the importance of asking people to do their part around the January 21 rally.
When I got into that van early Sunday morning, January 20, for the 26-hour ride halfway across the country, this lifelong New Yorker who’s never seen the Deep South before knew I was in for an experience.
I saw my first Confederate battle flag, nonchalantly displayed on the wall of a Chattanooga, Tennessee gas station ($9.95 plus tax). We saw that symbol of hate over and over again as we traveled. The Jena little league baseball team’s logo even has the “stars and bars” on it!
I saw my first Klansman face to face. He was just on the other side of a Louisiana State Police squad car in front of the Jena courthouse. He was dressed head to toe in camouflage and wore a KKK baseball cap emblazoned with, of course, a Confederate flag. Thanks to our rally, he and his Klucker buddies got their message of racism drowned out that day.
Folks from many corners of the country came to Jena to say no to nooses, no to white supremacy and to demand freedom for the Jena 6. We were different races and ages. It was something. And, I was really proud that our club wanted to be at the front when we faced the Klan rally at the town courthouse and drowned them out.
After the rally we saw how poor Black people live in the rural Deep South when our caravan of about 20 cars took our message into the Black neighborhoods of Jena. Along one-lane roads, some of which were unpaved, there were little trailers, one floor housing projects, and small houses surrounded by vacant lots. It seemed that every fourth house was burnt out or abandoned.
We felt the warmth of the Black people in Jena in their welcomes. They waved to us from the doorways of their homes and the side of the road. “I love y’all,” one older man yelled out as our van passed. Youth, mothers with small children, and older people beamed wide smiles as they grabbed up copies of Revolution newspaper.
During those long hours rolling along the interstate, I got to participate in some very deep and thoughtful discussions—both one-on-one talks and collective discussions with everybody in the van.
In the latter discussions, using Chairman Bob Avakian’s series in Revolution newspaper as a starting off point, we talked about the significance of our participation in the rally, and we wrestled for hours with what it means to fight the power and transform the people for revolution.
I was inspired by this whole effort—by the four days of mobilization on the streets of Harlem, by the long cross country journey to confront the Klan, and by all that we were a part of in Jena. I’m sure that sentiment is shared by everybody who was in our van.
Revolution reader in Harlem
TRYING TO MAKE IT SAFER TO DO A DANGEROUS JOB
from CITY LIMITS magazine:
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