[France] Workers Protest Across France

suggested by Dan, re-posted from NYT

WORKERS PROTEST ACROSS FRANCE
By MATTHEW SALTMARSH and DAVID JOLLY
March 19, 2009

PARIS — Rail service, airports, utilities and the public sector were hit Thursday by work stoppages, the second major strike in two months, as French unions mobilized against the government’s response to the global economic crisis.

Two-thirds of the country’s high-speed TGV trains were canceled. Air France said most of its flights were operating normally from Roissy Charles de Gaulle International Airport, while about one-third of its flights from Orly Airport had been canceled. Traffic on the Paris Métro and bus networks were close to normal, according to transit officials, but suburban rail line service was disrupted.

In a joint statement, the country’s largest unions said that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government “had categorically refused to increase the statutory minimum wage, to alter his policies in the field of public service employment,” and that the official response to the crisis was wholly inadequate.

They called on the government to safeguard jobs, to fight against labor insecurity and to protect workers’ purchasing power.

More than 200 demonstrations were expected across France, according to unions. There was no initial comment from the government about the extent of the action.

The country faces mounting dissatisfaction amid job cuts. Mirroring trends in other European countries, the number of job seekers in France rose in January by 90,200, the highest increase on record, and the fourth-quarter unemployment rate rose to 8.2 percent.

The tire maker Continental is closing a plant in the Oise region which employs 1,120 people. Total, the largest French energy company, announced last week that it planned to shed some 250 jobs in the French refining sector as it cuts capacity at Gonfreville in the northwest of the country.

Faced with expectations that the French economy will contract by nearly 2 percent this year, Mr. Sarkozy announced a $35 billion stimulus plan in December.

But he has held back from announcing further measures, apart from support packages for the auto industry and banks. He recently criticized Britain for seeking to bolster consumption by cutting the value added tax.

Unions want more tax breaks and the opposition Socialist Party has called for a consumption-driven approach to restarting growth.

A poll conducted this week for the magazine Paris Match by IFOP found that 78 percent of the French support the strikers, the highest rate in a decade.

But among passengers waiting for a train to Paris at a station about 15 miles west of the capital, it was hard to find such support. “France is a bit like a sinking boat, and these strikers are just adding more holes,” said Maurice Bataille, 34.

Unsurprisingly, French business leaders expressed frustration at the strike. “It’s a big sign that people don’t know where they are; they don’t know what they want,” Christophe de Margerie, the chief executive of Total, said Wednesday. “They are lost.”

He defended the decision to cut refining jobs as something that “should have been done one or two years ago” and said that the company would keep investing and adding jobs in other areas. Union officials said production had stopped Thursday at six Total refineries, but the company said the impact on production was “limited,” according to Reuters.

Two major demonstrations were planned for central Paris later Thursday in fine spring weather. On Jan. 29, more than a million marched in cities across the country, and the following day, Mr. Sarkozy made some concessions to worker demands.

[U.S.] Obama to Reverse Ban on Stem Cell Research

re-posted from NPR

Obama To Reverse Funding Ban On Stem Cell Work
by The Associated Press, 03-06-09

President Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order on Monday reversing restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

The long-expected move is likely to stir up not only the promise of scientific breakthrough, but also the controversy over where government crosses a moral line.

Obama will hold an event at the White House to announce the move, a senior administration official said Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy had not yet been publicly announced.

Under President George W. Bush, federal money for research on human embryonic stems cells was limited to those stem cell lines that were created before Aug. 9, 2001. No federal dollars could be used on research with cell lines from embryos destroyed from that point forward.

Obama's move is expected to lift that restriction. The official said the aim of the policy is to restore "scientific integrity" to the process.

Embryonic stem cells are master cells that can morph into any cell of the body. Scientists hope to harness them so they can create replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases — such as new insulin-producing cells for diabetics or new nerve connections to restore movement after spinal injury.

"I feel vindicated after eight years of struggle, and I know it's going to energize my research team," said Dr. George Daley of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Children's Hospital of Boston, a leading stem cell researcher.

Such research is controversial because embryos must be destroyed to obtain the cells; they typically are culled from fertility-clinic leftovers otherwise destined to be thrown away.

Once a group of stem cells is culled, it can be kept alive and propagating in lab dishes for years.

There are different types of stem cells, and critics say the nation should pursue alternatives to embryonic ones such as adult stem cells, or those found floating in amniotic fluid or the placenta. But leading researchers consider embryonic stem cells the most flexible, and thus most promising, form; they say that science, not politics, should ultimately judge.

"Science works best and patients are served best by having all the tools at our disposal," Daley said.

Obama made it clear during the campaign he would overturn Bush's directive.

During the campaign, Obama said, "I strongly support expanding research on stem cells. I believe that the restrictions that President Bush has placed on funding of human embryonic stem cell research have handcuffed our scientists and hindered our ability to compete with other nations."

He said he would lift Bush's ban and "ensure that all research on stem cells is conducted ethically and with rigorous oversight."

"Patients and people who've been patient advocates are going to be really happy," said Amy Comstock Rick of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research.

The ruling will bring one immediate change: As of Monday, scientists who've had to meticulously keep separate their federally funded research and their privately funded stem cell work — from buying separate microscopes to even setting up labs in different buildings — won't have that expensive hurdle anymore.

Next, scientists can start applying for research grants from the National Institutes of Health. The NIH already has begun writing guidelines for what embryonic stem cell lines will qualify under Obama's ruling. Among other things, the guidelines are expected to demand that the cells were derived with proper informed consent from the woman or couple who donated the original embryo.

[Puerto Rico] Student Strike at Technological Institute of of Puerto Rico

re-posted from CUNY Movement listserv

03-07-09

"I just received the press release below, issued by students who have been on strike for 10 days at the Technological Institute of Puerto Rico in the city of Manatí. They have an "encampment" in front of the campus 24 hours a day.

One of the main issues is "the closing of sections that some of our students need in order to graduate," together with having "too many students per section."

They are facing threats of repression and a virtual blackout in the press. Developing international solidarity among different struggles is crucial to our own. I am hoping to get more information soon from friends in Puerto Rico.

Sándor"


COMUNICADO DE PRENSA

Los estudiantes del ITPR de Manatí, representados por el consejo estudiantil y con el apoyo del 100% de nuestros estudiantes declaramos la huelga. Llevamos 10 días de lucha y resistencia con un campamento establecido frente a la institución las 24 horas. Nuestros reclamos, que no son nada nuevos, sino que se vienen arrastrando de semestre en semestre sin que se presente una solución real y definitiva, son varios.

Entre los diferentes factores que están creando malestar entre el estudiantado e incluso entre la mayor parte del personal docente están: la notable falta de materiales necesarios para los respectivos laboratorios de nuestras diferentes tecnologías, entre estas:

· INSTRUMENTACIÓN

· ELÉCTRICA

· ELECTRÓNICA

· CALIDAD AMBIENTAL

· RADIOLOGÍA

· QUÍMICA

· SISTEMAS DE INFORMACIÓN

· ENFERMERÍA



ENTRE OTRAS

No siendo suficiente esto también enfrentamos problemas con el cierre de secciones necesarias para que parte de nuestro estudiantado pueda graduarse, se suma a esto la falta de profesores a nuestros salones lo que provoca que haya demasiados estudiantes por sección sin contar con las facilidades necesarias. Es también notable las pobres condiciones en que se encuentran nuestras facilidades incluyendo salones, baños, áreas recreativas entre otras. Hay que recordar que nuestro instituto ofrece cursos técnicos y grados asociados para los que se requiere completar ciertas horas de práctica, esto nos trae otro problema y es la falta de una coordinadora industrial que sea eficiente y tenga un interés genuino por conseguir que nuestros estudiantes puedan realizar las mismas para cumplimentar sus estudios.

Por último y no menos importante nuestros estudiantes en su mayoría dependen de ayudas económicas puesto que no cuentan con los recursos necesarios para costear y sufragar gastos como los de la compra de libros requeridos para sus clases y estas ayudas no están llegando a tiempo.

Como debe ser de su conocimiento las becas son ayudas federales que son destinadas únicamente a los estudiantes que la solicitan y cumplen con los requisitos necesarios para la misma ¿y el dinero? Nadie puede ofrecer una respuesta clara ni el Departamento de Educación, ni el Departamento de Hacienda, ni la Institución. Es por esto que entre las cosas que reclamamos están el desembolso del dinero y una investigación sobre la manera en que estos fondos se administran.

En resumen, para que la huelga termine exigimos la entrega de la beca, el nombramiento de profesores para abrir las secciones que necesitan nuestros estudiantes graduandos, la limpieza de las facilidades del plantel y el recogido de escombros y además los materiales necesarios para las diferentes tecnologías. Siendo las mismas cumplidas estaremos dispuestos al diálogo para resolver sin más preámbulo las situaciones que nos aquejan.

A pesar de las constantes AMENAZAS de usar la fuerza y la amedrentación por parte de la directora interina de la institución, la Sra. Collazo; continuaremos con nuestra manifestación y lucharemos por nuestros derechos.

[AZ] "Arpaio Is Not My America"

suggested by Miriam, re-posted from Huffington Post

Protesters Take On America's Toughest Sheriff, 03/02/09
By Matthew Palevsky

On Saturday, thousands of protesters walked the streets of Phoenix to air their displeasure with America's toughest sheriff, whose crackdown on the city's immigrant population has won him consistently high approval ratings from his constituents in Maricopa County.

The anger of local residents came across in one image that depicted Sheriff Joe in a white Ku Klux Klan robe. Latino protesters held signs stating, "We Are Humans," while the most popular sign read, "Stop Racial Profiling NOW!" Supporters of the sheriff took up residence on two street corners and held signs that read, "We Support Joe," as protesters walked by.

In mid-February, Democrats in Congress, including Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called for an investigation into Sheriff Arpaio's activities around immigrant arrests due to allegations of racial profiling and other civil rights abuses.

Arpaio has also been denounced for using volunteer "chain gangs" and housing inmates in tent cities. These severe tactics led Fox to give Arpaio his own reality show entitled, "Smile... You're Under Arrest!"

The backbone of Sheriff Arpaio's vast influence stems from an agreement between the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The 287(g) provision allows federally-trained and supervised state and local law enforcement officials to investigate, apprehend, transport, and detain people who are living and working in the country without authorization. Protesters hope their demonstration will lead to further investigations into alleged crimes committed under the 287(g) provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

For video, go here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/02/protesters-take-on-americ_n_171091.html

[U.S.] Typewriters Endure In The Digital Age

re-posted from NPR: Morning Edition

QWERTY Love: Typewriters Endure In The Digital Age, 03/02/09
by Susan Stamberg

Long ago, before the advent of cell phones and texting, typing was done with all 10 fingers — not just two thumbs. Those were the days of clackety machines of communication called typewriters. Those days aren't totally gone. In the heart of California's Silicon Valley, business is still clacking.

John Sansone's shop on State Street in Los Altos is officially called Los Altos Typewriter and Business Machines. But you won't see the word "Typewriter" in the name on the front window. Sansone took it off to make the business sound more contemporary, and because some customers were giving him a hard time.

Even though he mostly fixes fax machines and printers nowadays, typewriters still need his attention.

Offices continue to use typewriters for certain things, Sansone says. If you want to address an envelope or create a label in triplicate, it's sometimes faster and easier on a typewriter. But you have to hunt and peck just to find the machines.

"They used to be on everyone's desk, but now they're next to the microwave, or they're in a little corner," he says.

Sansone also has regular customers who use typewriters. One of them arrives on a walker, with her white hair neatly permed and her typewriter carried by a friend. When asked what's wrong with it, she replies, "Everything."

Esther Johnson, 103, lives in an assisted living facility nearby. There aren't many places left where she can take her electric typewriter, which she bought from her son when he purchased a computer.

"I've always liked the typewriter, always," Johnson says. "I've been typing since I'm 14 years old."

Sansone can't find anything wrong with her typewriter except that it's out of correction paper. He replaces it, no charge, and Johnson leaves the shop a happy customer.

Sansone also fixes up typewriters that people find in their parents' and grandparents' garages. "Nobody ever threw them away, and they want to keep it in the family," Sansone says. He also repairs quite a few old typewriters that people bought on eBay and arrive in bad shape or broken from shipping.

The shop also sells typewriters that Sansone finds and refurbishes. They're mostly old manuals, "preferably cute, interesting looking," he says. "Seriously, that's more important than how they function." Sansone says the manual models have become very attractive to young people who want to be writers.

The bulk of these typewriters are bought by high school and college students. "Most of the feedback I get is, on a computer you have the screen staring back at you, and it inhibits their creative process," he says. "Two people said, on a computer it's too easy to delete things. And a lot of times, you change something and you can't get it back."

Sansone has a few portable Corona No. 3s, circa the 1920s, with flip-down carriages for easy carrying; these were popular with reporters of the day. There's also an Oliver No. 9, circa 1920, with its crazy looking U-shaped, upright typebars, as well as old Underwoods, Royals and Remingtons.

One of Sansone's customers, Alok Arora, bought a 1930 gleaming red Remington portable for his daughter last December for her 16th birthday. "My wife said, 'Look on eBay,' but I am a person who needs to feel the typewriter," says Arora.

His daughter, Ish, loves her Remington: "It's nice to write in silence, and the only thing I hear is the sound of the keys." It was difficult getting used to writing on the typewriter, Ish says, "because obviously you have to press the keys a bit harder. But now I've gotten used to it."

She named her typewriter Pasha, after a character in one of her favorite novels, Doctor Zhivago. Although Ish admits the character is quite despicable, the name intrigues her. She keeps Pasha on a plain wooden desk in a quiet room.

"I feel like when I step into this room and I start to type on Pasha, it's kind of escaping my everyday life, and I can immerse myself in the words," she says.

Ish, a high school sophomore, does all her homework on a laptop but writes poetry on her Remington. She's also used it to write letters to her friends. "They were ecstatic to actually receive a letter in the mail from a typewriter."

Arora, who works for a computer data storage company called NetApp, says he's contemplating buying an old manual for himself. He's inspecting an old Royal and another Remington. "It's a paradox being in the forefront of technology, and here I am working with the typewriter, which was made about 90 years ago."

It might be a paradox, but a number of Silicon Valley computer folks have bought typewriters from Sansone. Sure, they miss the spell-check and save keys, but they like seeing how machines work. They like the sounds. They even like X-ing out words instead of hitting a delete key. And, Arora says, there's something else.

"It shows you the journey, how you arrived. That is where we miss with the latest technology — you miss the process," he says. "To me, the journey is more important than the destination."

Sansone says he doesn't know how long this fascination with the old manuals will last. But the business has had a good, long ride. His father, John Sr., bought it in 1967 when there was high demand for people who could fix typewriters. His father had three mechanics working for him, and other part-timers.

Sansone and his sister Peggy inherited the business from their father in the 1980s and ran it together for 20 years. She moved to Seattle in September, leaving Sansone the sole owner and sole employee of Los Altos (Typewriter And) Business Machines.

How does he feel? Maybe a bit like the lonely Maytag repairman.