Tidbits, Reader Response & Announcements
April 20, 2012

-  Re: When is a Law Not A Law? When it Applies to Workers
   and Their Rights (Judy Atkins)
-  Re: Social Security has a Large and Growing Surplus
   (Harvey Lyon, Charles Ostman)
-  support for " To Be Anti-Racist Is To Be Feminist: The
   Hoodie and the Hijab Are Not Equals', by Adele Wilde-
   Blavatsky.
-  Announcement - Fighting Forward: A Labor & Working Class
   Summit  Madison - June 2013

==========

-  Re: When is a Law Not A Law? When it Applies to Workers
and Their Rights

Outrageous and yet predictable.  I think we should all make
copies of the poster and go pass them out at non union
workplaces in our communities.

Judy Atkins

==========

-  Re: Social Security has a Large and Growing Surplus

very interesting, but not truly accurate. until the nixon
presidency, social security was not reported as part of the
federal budget, because it did not make use of taxes.
nixon's economic adviser, herb stein, urged nixon to make a
unified budget so that he could use the s.s. surplus to
cover the deficits of the war. (sound familiar?) but there's
another aspect to the situation that the authors don't talk
about. the bonds-really, i.o.u's-that make up the s.s.
surplus. there's only one way to make good on them: raise
taxes, when s.s. starts to have to draw on them. so you're
going to have the mother of all intergenerational wars when
that happens. a banker friend of mine once said to me(many
years ago), speaking of the federal government, "When the
government gets in trouble, it has two choices: it can raise
taxes, or it can print money. which do you think it will
do?" we've already tried printing money.

Harvey Lyon
________________

The article sounds so lovely and hopeful . . . but
also, hopelessly misinformed.

The reality is, there is no "lock box" for the SS
funding, and in fact, SS funds have been "borrowed"
from and enmeshed into myriad congressional and GAO
funding allocations for years.

I wish it were not so, truly I do.

But to paint such an absurdly rosy picture of how SS is
doing just fine, with trillions of surplus dollars in
reserve, is simply a grievous disservice to your
reading audience.

I tend to support and agree with much of the content
usually provided via Portside, but in this particular
instance, I respectfully suggest the content presented
in this article is, at best, perhaps well intended but
seriously misleading.

Charles Ostman

Berkeley,  CA

==========

-  support for " To Be Anti-Racist Is To Be Feminist: The
Hoodie and the Hijab Are Not Equals', by Adele Wilde-
Blavatsky.

We are writing in support to the article: 'To Be Anti-Racist
Is To Be Feminist: The Hoodie and the Hijab Are Not Equals',
by Adele Wilde-Blavatsky.

We extend our full solidarity to Adele Wilde-Blavatsky for
such a clear and rare analysis from feminists in Europe and
North America, in which women's resistance to the Muslim
Right -including by resisting all forms of fundamentalist
veiling - is made visible and honoured, rather than
sacrificed on the altar of anti racism and anti
imperialism'.

Marieme Helie Lucas, sociologist, Algeria, founder and
former international coordinator of the international
solidarity network Women Living Under Muslim Laws ( wluml),
coordinator Secularism Is A Women's Issue ( siawi)

Fatou Sow, Researcher, Senegal, international coordinator,
Women Living Under Muslim Laws

Maryam Namazie, Spokesperson, One Law for All and Equal
Rights Now - Organisation against Women's Discrimination in
Iran, Iran/UK

Karima Bennoune, Professor of Law, Rutgers University, U S A

Khawar Mumtaz, Shirkat Gah, Pakistan

==========

-  Fighting Forward: A Labor & Working Class Summit

SAVE THE DATE!

FIGHTING FORWARD: A Labor & Working Class Summit
June 12-15, 2013
Madison, WI
MATC Downtown Campus

Organized by the Labor & Working Class Studies Project and
the Working Class Studies Association

Join us at the epicenter of the "Wisconsin Uprising" that
started in February 2011, for a national gathering of
working people, community and labor activists, students and
educators focused on building a revitalized movement in
support of labor and the working class.

A Call for Participation will be distributed on September 1,
2012.

The success of this event will depend on the support of many
people and organizations. If you would like to contribute to
its success by donating your time and skills, or can help us
secure organizational partners and sponsors, please contact
Patrick Barrett at [log in to unmask] or 608.262.0854.

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