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News Releases

  • Interviews Available on China PNTR

    ROBERT E. SCOTT An international trade economist with the Economic Policy Institute and author of the recently released report “China and the States,” Scott said today: “In April, the Clinton administration published several hundred pages of state-by-state ‘opportunity reports’ purporting to show that ‘the passage of PNTR [Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China]…would open new export and employment opportunities in all 50 states.’ These reports were issued in an attempt to persuade Congress to approve the recently negotiated trade deal with China to ease its entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, these reports not only fail to provide…

  • Social Security Politics

    Today, George W. Bush is expected to outline a Social Security plan that moves toward privatizing the program. The following policy analysts are available for interviews: DIANA ZUCKERMAN Executive director of the National Center for Policy Research for Women and Families, Zuckerman said today: “Allowing workers to divert some Social Security payroll taxes for personal investment, as George W. Bush proposes, would be a bad idea for most people, especially women. Private Social Security accounts, like checking accounts or any other accounts, would have fees. Low earners, many of whom are women, would put very little money in these individual…

  • Some Mother’s Day?

    The following analysts, who note that some mothers are deprived of the honors of Mother’s Day, are available for interviews: GWENDOLYN MINK Author of The Wages of Motherhood and professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Mink said today: “Mother’s Day is a small but powerful gesture of honor and respect for the caring work mothers do for their families. But not all mothers enjoy honor and respect, even on Mother’s Day. In public policy and public debate, we actually punish some mothers for doing caring work if we don’t approve of their class or marital…

  • Trade Policy Issues: Africa and China

    As Congress considers key legislation about trade relations with Africa and China, the following policy analysts are available for interviews: EZEKIEL PAJIBO Senior policy analyst with the Africa Faith and Justice Network, Pajibo said today: “This Africa trade bill will not improve the conditions for most people in Africa. It fails to provide for desperately needed debt cancellation, poverty reduction or an end to structural adjustment policies of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It will, however, help major multinational corporations. It doesn’t lay the basis for Africa to have a manufacturing capability. Instead, it continues with what…

  • Nike and Sweatshops

    SARAH JACOBSON A coordinating committee member of United Students Against Sweatshops, Jacobson studies at the University of Oregon in Eugene. She said today: “The decision of the University of Oregon to join the Worker Rights Consortium was made after a year-long process that involved faculty, students and administrators. President Dave Frohnmayer signed onto the WRC only after a three-fourths majority election by students, after the unanimous recommendation by an advisory committee established by the president in the fall and after a vote by the University Senate. CEO of Nike and UO alumnus Phil Knight has responded by pulling $30 million…

  • 25 Years Later: Perspectives on the Vietnam War

    BARBARA SONNEBORN On her 24th birthday, Sonneborn was informed that her husband was killed in Vietnam. Twenty years later, she felt compelled to travel to Vietnam. The result was “Regret to Inform,” an Academy Award nominated film (nationally broadcast on PBS earlier this year) which documents the experiences of widows from of all sides of the Vietnam-American war. She is now organizing the Widows of War Living Memorial which provides a forum for widows of war to tell their stories and become a force for peace. Said Sonneborn: “When I went to Vietnam I knew that war was the enemy,…

  • Non-Proliferation Treaty

    As participants from around the world gather at the United Nations for a month-long conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the following policy analysts are available for interviews: JACQUELINE CABASSO Executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, Cabasso is at the UN conference in New York. She said today: “The U.S. is doing a big PR blitz trying to convince the rest of the world that it is in compliance with Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which requires the nuclear powers to negotiate the end of the arms race and the elimination of nuclear weapons. In…

  • Perspectives on Earth Day

    In connection with Earth Day, the following people are available for interviews: KRISTEN BOYLES A staff attorney with the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund specializing in Clean Water Act litigation, Boyles said: “As we celebrate Earth Day 2000, it ‘s important to remember that all life on our planet depends on water. Unfortunately, clean water is fast becoming a scarce commodity in the United States. Despite our need for clean water, there are currently attacks on the Clean Water Act in Congress which would undermine laws protecting our rivers, lakes and streams.” More Information RICK HIND Legislative director of the Greenpeace…

  • Interviews Available on IMF and World Bank

    As protests continue in Washington against policies of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the following are available for interviews: CAROL WELCH International policy analyst for Friends of the Earth and coauthor of the recent report “The IMF: Selling the Environment Short,” Welch said today: “The IMF deals in environmental destruction. It pushes countries to exploit natural resources to meet short-term financial needs. In Cameroon, exports of raw logs increased 50 percent in a three-year IMF program.” More Information CHERYL PAYER Author of The Debt Trap: The IMF and the Third World and Lent and Lost: Foreign Credit and…

  • With Protests Underway, Interviews Available

    As thousands protest against the policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, the following are available for interviews: QUENTIN DRISKELL An attorney with the National Conference of Black Lawyers and the National Lawyers Guild, Driskell is providing legal assistance to protesters. He said today: “There’s a complete atmosphere of repression in Washington: the illegitimate preemptive arrests, the expansion of the restricted area around the World Bank building, the storming of the Convergence Center. The authorities seem bent on not allowing peaceful protests to go forward. The tactics that they’ve resorted to almost seem as if…

  • Picket Lines at Congressional Offices: “Looming Threat of Nuclear War”

    “We’re going to show every member of Congress that we won’t be silent on the path to nuclear Armageddon. We have activists in every congressional district in the state saying with a unified voice that the costs of a nuclear arms race are too high, and that justice for communities like the Marshallese people have…

  • Zelenskyy and Canadian Parliament Give Ovation to SS Nazi Veteran

    “The AP caption described Hunka as having ‘fought with the First Ukrainian Division in World War II before later immigrating to Canada.’ The First Ukrainian Division is another name for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the military wing of the Nazi Party; the unit was also called SS Galichina.”

  • National Nurses United Calls on CDC to Hold Public Meetings

    National Nurses United put out a letter calling for the CDC to hold public meetings before the agency votes on new infection control guidance updates.

  • Menendez Indictment and Egypt

    “At other points in the indictment, Menendez is described as skirting his committee, at one point asking the State Department for a breakdown of staffing at the U.S. Embassy in Egypt, information ‘deemed highly sensitive because it could pose significant operational security concerns if disclosed to a foreign government or if made public.’ …”

  • Biden and Trump Both Treat U.S. Jews as “Appendages of Israel”

    “Jews will hereafter be treated as foreigners in every country but Palestine. … I would ask of a British Government sufficient tolerance to refuse a conclusion which makes aliens and foreigners by implication, if not at once by law, of all their Jewish fellow-citizens.”

  • On Israel and Saudi: Biden Admin “Normalizing Atrocities and Apartheid”

    “Though the Biden administration has placed a huge premium on getting the deal done, it raises huge questions about the commitments it is making to an autocratic monarchy, whose ruler has murdered opponents like dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”

  • Updated CDC Mask Guidance for Healthcare Workers

    Draft CDC guidance recommends that healthcare workers wear surgical masks when treating patients with endemic respiratory infections, like flu. Workplace health and safety experts are concerned. 

  • Did U.S. Ukraine Policy Help Crush Pakistani Democracy?

    “The protests are the latest chapter in a year-and-a-half-long political crisis roiling the country. In April 2022, the Pakistani military, with the encouragement of the U.S., helped organize a no-confidence vote to remove Prime Minister Imran Khan. Ahead of the ouster, State Department diplomats privately expressed anger to their Pakistani counterparts over what they called…

  • Illinois Becomes First State to End Money Bail

    “As Illinois reduces the number of people incarcerated in county jails, it is essential that we work together to ensure that any economic benefits from these changes are passed on to the communities most harmed by pretrial jailing. Across Illinois, Black people have been disproportionately jailed by unaffordable money bonds.”

  • New Push to Reduce Injuries Among Warehouse Workers

    A coalition of labor organizations, small businesses and community organizations in New York is pushing for the state to pass legislation that would help prevent occupational injuries for warehouse workers.

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