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News Releases

  • Terrorism Aftermath

    ROBERT JENSEN Author of the forthcoming book Writing Dissent and an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Jensen said today: “The last time the U.S. responded to a terrorist attack, on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, it was innocents in Sudan and Afghanistan who were in the way. We were told that the U.S. missiles hit only military targets but the Sudan target turned out to be a pharmaceutical factory. There are calls for a ‘massive response’ but let us not forget that, if the pattern of past U.S. actions holds, such a response…

  • Racism Conference

    The UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa is scheduled to end on Friday. The following analysts are available for interviews: HUMBERTO R. BROWN Coordinator for the African and African Descendants Caucus, one of the main caucuses of the conference in Durban, Brown said today: “Colonization and slavery should be considered crimes against humanity, and African descendants should have rights of reparations…. We also need to address the economic basis of racism and a colonial history that has led to marginalization and impoverishment.” YEMI TOURE Toure is a columnist for The Black World Today, a former anti-apartheid activist and…

  • Attica, 30 Years Later

    Next week marks the 30th anniversary of the uprising at Attica prison in upstate New York. In 1971, on Sept. 13 — four days into a rebellion by 1,281 prisoners demanding humane treatment — more than 500 state troopers assaulted the prison compound, under orders from Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. The troopers’ gunfire killed 29 inmates as well as 10 guards being held hostage. Interviews are now available with: FRANK “BIG BLACK” SMITH An Attica prisoner 30 years ago, Smith was prominent in the rebellion. Immediately after it ended, Smith was among the prisoners who underwent torture. After his release from…

  • Education Issues as School Year Begins

    WASHINGTON — With the start of the school year, Education Secretary Rod Paige is speaking today at the National Press Club. The following analysts are available for interviews: JOHN TAYLOR GATTO Former New York State Teacher of the Year and author of the recently released book The Underground History of American Education, Gatto said today: “Education used to be about instilling people with good ethics. It then incorporated the notion of teaching people how to be good citizens and then having people achieve their own personal best. All these have merit, but the education system is now being geared to…

  • Labor Day

    HOLLY SKLAR Co-author of the just-released book Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All Of Us, Sklar said today: “A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it. Most Americans believe that. But as we celebrate Labor Day, hardworking Americans [who are] paid minimum wage have to choose between eating or heating, health care or child care. At $5.15 an hour, they earn just $10,712 a year. That’s a third less than in 1968, when the minimum wage was about $8, adjusting for inflation. A couple with two kids would have to work…

  • Major International Issues: * Racism Conference * Israel’s Occupation

    LORETTA ROSS Founder and executive director of the National Center for Human Rights Education, Ross is at the UN conference on racism, which begins on Friday in South Africa. She said today: “The Bush administration should not come to the conference. It would likely play an obstructionist role, refusing to acknowledge that the enslavement of Africans in the Americas and the theft of Native-American lands were crimes against humanity. Instead, members of the Congressional Black Caucus should attend. This would be in the tradition of civil-rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and her colleagues from Mississippi, who sent an alternate delegation…

  • Argentina and IMF

    As the IMF and Argentina’s government agree to another loan package of $8 billion and further austerity programs, the following analysts are available for interviews: BEVERLY KEENE Coordinator of Dialogue 2000, a coalition representing human-rights and other groups in Argentina, Keene said today: “This new agreement with the IMF brings no resolution to growing unemployment and poverty. In fact, it will only make things worse since these loans are conditional on implementing more of the policies that have impaired the economy and taken an enormous human toll due to the cuts in health and social services…. Argentina will pay some…

  • The Incredible Shrinking Surplus

    With the White House reporting today that the current-year surplus has plummeted to $158 billion from the $281 billion projected in April, the following policy analysts are available for interviews: STEVEN KULL Author of the report “Americans on Federal Budget Priorities,” Kull is director of the Center on Policy Attitudes, which conducted a scientific online survey to determine how Americans thought the budget should be divided. He said today: “Based on what we’ve seen, in terms of how people prioritize the surplus, there may be significant public discomfort with the next round of tax cuts. The public has put a…

  • “Welfare Reform”: Five Years Later

    Wednesday (Aug. 22) marks the fifth anniversary of President Clinton’s signing of the “welfare reform” law. Re-authorization for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, the program that came out of the 1996 legislation, will be a subject of controversy during the next year. The following policy analysts are available for comment: NOEL A. CAZENAVE Co-author of the just-released book Welfare Racism: Playing the Race Card Against America’s Poor and associate professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, Cazenave said today: “The deployment by politicians and the media of racist images of lazy and sexually promiscuous black ‘welfare mothers’ facilitates the…

  • Faith-Based Initiative

    As the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives releases a report this afternoon at the Brookings Institution, the following individuals are available for interviews: REV. JAMES LAWSON Pastor emeritus of the Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles and one of the architects of the civil rights movement, Lawson said today about the White House plan: “This is another attempt to undermine the notion that government should be responsible for justice and equality in the emancipation of its vulnerable. The religious and political right so limit the options that they become one-dimensional — and serious religious, academic and…

  • Perspectives on Social Security

    DIANA ZUCKERMAN Director of the Social Security Project of the National Association of Commissions for Women, Zuckerman said: “Privatization would be a double whammy for women: Privatized personal accounts primarily benefit the highest earners, who tend to be men, and many of the proposed benefit cuts would harm our lowest earners, most of whom are…

  • Analysts on Kurdish Situation

    With Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan now a prisoner in Turkey, the global spotlight is on the Kurds. In the United States, interviews are available with these analysts who can shed light on Kurdish perspectives: VERA BEAUDIN SAEEDPOUR Founder of the Kurdish Library and the Kurdish Museum, and editor of Kurdish Life and International Journal of…

  • Impeachment and “Real Issues”

    KIT GAGE National coordinator of the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, Gage said: “The President’s lawyers said it was fundamentally unfair that they were asked to defend him having seen only a small portion of the thousands of pages of testimony. This was secret evidence. They are right, but it is also secret evidence…

  • After Gore Announces New Anti-Drug Plan, Critics Question Some Basic Assumptions

    WASHINGTON — Hours after Vice President Al Gore announced a new White House anti-drug plan Monday, critics renewed their calls for fundamental changes in federal efforts to curb drug use. Those critics included a former counsel to the House Judiciary Committee, a prisoner who publishes a newspaper, and a sociologist. They are available for interviews:…

  • Environmentalists Critique Clinton Budget Waste

    WASHINGTON — Although the Clinton administration is hailing its new budget for record levels of spending on environmental protection and new clean air initiatives, critics said Thursday that many budget priorities actually encourage pollution and undermine a clean environment — while fleecing taxpayers. Environmentalists are sometimes accused of being “big government” boosters, but these experts…

  • Clinton’s New Budget: Behind the Rhetoric

    GREG SPEETER The executive director of the National Priorities Project, Speeter said: “The fact that we’re looking at increasing the Pentagon budget by $110 billion over the next five years, at a time when it ought to be going down, is ridiculous. Our domestic needs are increasing. We have a child poverty rate of 20.8…

  • Wider Perspectives on Senate Trial

    As the Senate trial of President Clinton continues, here are the perspectives of some analysts — available for interviews — outside the crossfire of Republicans and White House allies. TED GLICK The national coordinator of the Independent Progressive Politics Network, Glick said: “We hear a lot about polls and what people think of Clinton and…

  • Outside the Partisian Boxes: Other Views of Senate Trial

    By now, the public is very familiar with the partisan arguments over whether the Senate trial of President Clinton should continue. This week, loyal Democrats and Republicans are spinning as fervently as ever. But some other positions don’t fit into the partisan trenches. The Institute for Public Accuracy offers different perspectives on impeachment and the…

  • The Day After “State of the Union” Speech, Critics Charge Double Standard for Parents

    Some researchers said Wednesday that President Clinton’s proposal to provide a tax credit for parents who stay home to care for their children is based on a double standard. The specialists contended that Clinton’s new plan is at odds with his welfare reform policy. Among those available for interviews: MIMI ABRAMOVITZ A professor of social…

  • Assessing the “State of the Union”: Social Security, Education, Health Care

    With President Clinton’s State of the Union address focusing attention on such issues as Social Security, education and health care, the following policy analysts are available for interviews: SOCIAL SECURITY MARK WEISBROT Economist and research director at the Preamble Center, Weisbrot said: “Social Security never did need saving; proposals to `reform’ the system are driven…

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